Patients can fall back on blister packaging to minimise their medication error rate. Blister packaging, which is essentially the individual sealing of a pill or capsule, is already common practice in our neighbouring countries. Even though blister packaging of pills is an option in Luxembourg, a legal framework for refunds is still lacking.
The blister packaging service ideally provides greater safety to patients. According to the president of the blister packaging cooperative Claude Hostert-Pfeiffer, the service allows patients to take their medication correctly. 80% of patients, she explains, do not take medication as prescribed, which significantly reduces the risk of successful recovery or therapy.
Doctors can prescribe blister packaging, which, in return, allows to individualise treatment and adapt the recipes and medication to the individual patient. Computer programmes play a key role in this process, Hostert-Pfeiffer explains.
A Grand Ducal decree from May 2019 established that blister packaging can be reimbursed by a patient’s health insurance at €11,20 per week. President of the syndicate of Luxembourg’s pharmacies Alain de Bourcy nevertheless stresses that this directive is yet to be translated into reality. “Social security,” he explains, “argues that the decree is inaccurate, not legal for a judicial viewpoint, and therefore we need a law.”
The current situation is also a difficult one for Luxembourg’s blister packing centre, which was built for that purpose in 2016. Director of the centre Frédéric Hasdenteufel explains that the demand remains too low as long as patients are not guaranteed reimbursement. The centre currently provides blister packaging for approximately 250 patients per week. To keep its financial balance, the centre would require an average of 1,500 weekly patients. The centre could be forced to close if the situation does not not change soon.
