Several important medicines used in Dutch hospitals may become less available because of new EU medicines rules now being prepared, as reported by NOS. Dutch organisations, including hospital pharmacists (NVZA), KNMP and specialist compounding pharmacies (NGB), say the draft law does not clearly allow such a system.
Collegial delivery means that a few specialised pharmacies make medicines themselves and then send them to other hospitals. This is needed for medicines that companies no longer make, or never made, because they are not profitable.
If the new EU law bans this system, many hospitals would no longer be able to get the medicines they need.
Medicines that industry no longer produces
The problem concerns medicines used for very sick patients, such as:
Liquid medicines for children in emergency situations
Drugs for serious infections
Flucytosine, a life-saving medicine for dangerous fungal infections that is no longer made by a company after the producer went bankrupt
Hospitals depend on compounding pharmacies to make these drugs. Without collegial delivery, these medicines may simply disappear from Dutch hospitals, putting patients at risk.
NVZA chair Claartje Samson told NOS that this could be life-threatening for patients in emergency rooms, ICUs and operating theatres.
Photo Credits: Jeshoots/Pexels
Dutch system is already only “tolerated”
Right now, the Dutch government tolerates collegial delivery through national guidelines, because it is not fully allowed under current EU law. That works for now, but once the new EU law takes effect, this tolerance policy may no longer be possible.
The Netherlands had hoped the new EU rules would make collegial delivery legal, but the current draft does not include it. Other countries with similar systems (including Belgium, Austria, Italy and Croatia) are also worried.
Dutch minister warns in Brussels
Dutch health minister Ernst Bruijn says he is “very worried” and has gone to Brussels to talk to European politicians and push for changes. He says the Netherlands is “strongly against” making collegial delivery impossible. “A patient must always receive the medicine they need,” he told NOS.
The Dutch government is now working with other EU countries to convince Brussels to change the law.
Next steps
The European Commission has not yet explained why collegial delivery is missing from the proposal. The final version of the law still has to be negotiated. Until then, Dutch pharmacists and the government are fighting to add a clear exception so hospitals can keep receiving these medicines.
If that does not happen, several essential medicines, many of which no company is willing to make, could disappear from Dutch hospitals. Pharmacists warn this would put vulnerable patients in danger and would be a serious setback for healthcare.
