DN Debate. So can confusion about replacement medications reduced

On many kitchen tables around the country are läkemedelsburkar that are difficult to sort. The problem is that the jars and the tablets in them looks different and has a different name, even though it may be the same drug. There is a large risk to take wrong, take twice or miss to take a drug. We are doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, pharmacists and dispensers working in the health care, dental care and pharmacy wants you to have the same name, on drugs that are changed out on all the pharmacies, on all of the lists of pharmaceuticals, on the burkarnas doseringstexter and on the sachets. So it is not in the day.

When drugs are not taken as intended increases the risk of under-, over -, or malpractice. The risks increases when it is difficult for you to understand which drug is which. One and the same name for you as a patient on the same medication over time, reduces the risk of that you in vain do not get the full effect of your medication, or are injured by to take your medicines the wrong.

the medical products agency decides when the same substance from different manufacturers are so similar that they can be exchanged for each other at the pharmacy. Then shall the pharmacist or receptarien normally leave out the cheapest of these equivalent alternatives. From apoteksbesök to apoteksbesök every third month, therefore, the same drug get a new name and look. If you are being treated with three drugs whose patents have expired, you run the risk get up to 12 cans with different names and appearance in over a year.

By all using the same names for the same drug, it becomes easier for you to keep track of läkemedelsburkar with different appearance and product name which is actually the same drug treatment. In this way, the insecurity of you and your related parties decrease.

In 2017 expedierades on pharmacy a drug with a different name and appearance than the of the recipe of about 34 million times, or at nearly half of all the common recipes. More than 17 million of these prey were in people 65 years and older. It meant less than 9 occasions per year in average of all elderly people, but many more of the sickest with many drugs.

the Exchange at the pharmacy saves money for the society and for you as a patient but has also created köksbordsproblemet. A simple way to reduce the problem would be that in the recipe use a unique name for each group of drugs which may be exchanged for each other at the pharmacy. Today, do not go there. The who prescribes a medicinal product on prescription must instead choose one of many brands in the utbytesgruppen. It is then the name that will be on the lists of the drugs you received the prescription, even if the jar that you received is called something completely different.

. We want to be when you get a drug that can be swapped at the pharmacy so, you and the person who makes the decisions about your drug therapy to use the same name – the established English name of the substance – like the one you meet on the pharmacy and the medical staff who can come to help you with the treatment.

We would therefore like to substansnamnet shall be used for the prescription of the drugs that can be swapped at the pharmacy. This will substansnamnet also be included on the lists of pharmaceuticals over your prescribed medicines both in health care and in pharmacies. We also want the name not just the fine print on the can, but also clearly on the label with the dosage that is put on the jar at the pharmacy. If you have multi-dose packed drugs, it should say clearly on the dospåsarna.

By all using the same names for the same drug, it becomes easier for you to keep track of läkemedelsburkar with different appearance and product name which is actually the same drug treatment. In this way, the insecurity of you and your close ones reduce; mistakes in how you take your medicines become less; unnecessary healthcare contacts and unnecessary extra work is avoided.

What is needed is that each group of drugs which may be exchanged for each other at the pharmacy is given a name based on the substansnamnet and a private code number. It can be implemented now. It allows you together with the licensed staff in the care and at the pharmacy can have the same name over time for a single drug therapy, even if the name and the look of the jar shift. For those patients where there is medical reasons for it to be there just as today be possible to get a drug with a certain trade name in a utbytesgrupp. For drugs that are not exchanged at the pharmacy there will be no change.

the Problem with keeping track of which jars contain the same drug affects nearly all drug therapy. All that can be done to reduce the risks for you as a patient and make it easier to help you keep track of your medicines is important. The way of working – the ”generic approach” – as the Swedish medical products agency instead tells the us that has responsibility for your medication, we do not believe is enough. Only this approach does not give you, as a patient, a single unifying name of your respective drug treatments in all sources. We believe that our proposal is necessary for the ”generic approach” that the Fda advocates to be able to be understood by our patients.

Generic prescribing means that the substansnamnet indicated on the prescription medicinal products containing the same substance but which are not always judged as interchangeable at the pharmacy. In several countries in the EU it is possible with generic prescribing. Generic prescribing leads to a certain uncertainty about what being the doctor really intends is that the patient should get and set training requirements and other information to the who prescribe the drug. In contrast to the generic prescribing as means to our proposal that only the exactly the the drug that the Fda decided to include in a utbytesgrupp get dispensed at the pharmacy when a prescription specifies this utbytesgrupp.

It's time for the Mpa and eHälsomyndigheten to take responsibility for as soon as realization of our proposal to give our patients the one and the same name over time on each drug therapy or to explain to our patients why they do not think it is possible to implement.