KRALENDIJK- Fundashon Mariadal (FMD) understands the dissatisfaction of pharmacies’ customers when it comes to handing in prescriptions and collecting medicines. That said FMD director Giovanni Frans and Medical Director Alex Schwengle in a press conference this morning.

A shortage of employees, especially pharmacy assistants, tired employees and technological challenges are some of the issues that continue to plague pharmacies. Behind the scenes, a lot of work is being done on the necessary improvements, although FMD also understands that the results are not yet really visible to the public.

“There is a lot going on behind the scenes. For example, within the Akademia Fundashon Mariadal we will train pharmacy assistants ourselves and we hope to introduce boxing on the island in the near future, from which patients can mainly pick up repeat prescriptions themselves. Those patients then receive a pin code that they have to enter, after which the medicines can be received,” says Schwengle.

Consideration

The two directors, who responded surprisingly candidly to questions from the press, indicated that the Foundation had so far made a conscious choice not to take any risks when it comes to due care. “You can choose to keep the service to the public optimal, or to continue to focus on maximum care,” says Frans. The director indicated that a relatively large amount of time is spent checking each other’s work. “Especially if there are several medicines that do not go together, for example”.

Normalization

FMD also explained that there is a shorter and longer trajectory. “In the short term – and we are talking about a period of a week or two – we will already be able to deploy more people and then also extend the opening hours again. But only by investing in relatively long-term issues such as our own training and further automation can we guarantee stability in the longer term,” explained Schwengle.