Electronic prescription system does not work properly: expert voices problems

YEREVAN, March 22. /ARKA/. The transition to the electronic prescription system has not been properly worked out by the Ministry of Health, which has led to problems, Vahan Grigoryan of the Vaga-Pharm pharmacy chain believes.

According to him, doctors still have to write paper prescriptions because of huge queues of patients in polyclinics and lack of time to fill out e-prescriptions. Patients with paper prescriptions turn to pharmacies, and those, in turn, have to sell medicines to those who need them.

According to Grigoryan, as a result, pharmacies violate the requirements of the law and serve customers, risking penalties.

He noted that in order to work in the electronic system it pharmacy employees need to have ID-cards, which a significant part of them do not have.

According to him, as soon as this requirement became known employees applied for ID-cards, but will receive them at best in April, because of which they are forced to work in the system using ID-cards of other employees who received them earlier. Personal information of patients thus becomes available to all pharmacy employees.

Since March 1, prescriptions for 470 medicines have been written electronically in Armenia. The list includes antibiotics, antifungal, antimycobacterial, antiviral drugs, immune serums and immunoglobulins, vaccines and misoprostols. The full list will be compiled at a later date and will take effect on January 1, 2025. -0-