Dutch Pharmacy Margin Cuts Sought

Dutch Health Minister Els Borst has rejected proposals from theparliament's second chamber for a 10% reduction in pharmacists' margins. She is of the opinion that such a drastic reduction cannot be levied, and has said that research would be needed to determine whether this could be possible without affecting the quality of service for patients.

For now, Mrs Borst says, a 5% cut is sufficient, which would be compensated by a re-examination of the pharmacist's per-prescription reimbursement, which the profession believes is currently too low.

Pharmacists' representatives claim that a 10% reduction in their margins would force 25% of all pharmacies to close with the loss of 4,000 jobs. However, parliamentarians in the second chamber believe that margins can be reduced by considerably more than the 5% which the pharmacists say is all they can afford.