What do doctors and patients think about medicaments being replaced?

Zapera has both a doctor panel and a consumer panel – with consumers who are sometimes patients. This enables interesting opportunities to shed light on different perspectives of a question.

A law that has existed in Sweden for a couple of years says that a pharmacy is allowed to replace the medicine a doctor has prescribed if there is a similar medicament which is cheaper.

Zapera has conducted a survey in their doctor panel of what the physicians think about the system and subsequently compared their answers with the patients’ opinion, which is measured among those in the consumer panel who have used a prescription within the past year.

We have observed that both the physicians and the patients are positive towards the law. The patient’s trust to the doctor has not been affected by the replacement of the medicine at the pharmacy and they do not experience any difference in the effectiveness of the treatment. The survey has also found that the doctors seldom or never follow up on whether the replacement has affected the treatment.

The doctors state that they most often prescribe the cheaper medicaments and they do not think about that there is any difference in the effect. Despite this most patients accept that the pharmacy replaces the medicine. They have the opinion like the doctors that it is a good thing that both the society’s and their own costs are reduced.

However, not everyone is pleased. There are groups among the patients, who doubt that the medicaments are equally good and a small group of doctors are worried about that the replacement will confuse the patients and increase the risk of double medication.

25% of those who have had their medicament replaced say that the cheaper medicine had poorer effect. One out of three would pay 50 SEK or more in order to keep the medicament that the doctor prescribed.

Contact us if you are interested in reading the complete survey report.

Source: Zapera News, Issue 29, May 2008