Within eight hours, Lieke (7) changed from a happy girl to a child crying out in pain. Kidney infection, the GP found and prescribed antibiotics. At the pharmacy it turned out that of the two prescribed bottles of antibiotics, only one was available. “I was advised to start calling around at pharmacies myself,” says mother Maaike Vaes. “People want to think along, but other pharmacies do not have the antibiotics either,” says pharmacy assistant Judith van de Mosselaar of Service Apotheek Deltaweg in Helmond.
The medical world is currently suffering from a shortage of medicines. There is a particular lack of liquid antibiotics for children. Antibiotics are indispensable for the treatment of serious bacterial infections, such as Lieke’s renal pelvis infection.
After her doctor’s visit, Maaike drove to the pharmacy in Someren on Monday morning to pick up the medicine for her daughter. But there she was blunt. She was advised to make the call herself. “According to the assistants, I could get the second bottle of antibiotics through other pharmacies. So not!”, says Maaike.
“I was angry and stopped calling.”
“No pharmacy had the bottle of antibiotics, only in Bakel and they kept it for their own patients. That surprised me. Is a 7-year-old child in Bakel more important than a 7-year-old child in Lierop? I was angry and am stopped calling.”
She then calls her doctor. “We have to come back on Wednesday. The doctor hopes that the treatment will work quickly. Otherwise, we can try other medication. We live in the Netherlands, right? It’s bizarre that I have to make a two-hour phone call to get my daughter’s medicine.”
“My child is screaming in pain.”
Maaike says that the situation makes her sad and angry. “On the phone, one pharmacy assistant is friendlier than the other. I understand that I’m not the only one, but they can just say ‘sorry, we don’t have it in stock’. You also notice that it takes the staff longer. It’s frustrating for me. I can’t do anything. I put my child on the toilet and he screams in pain. It’s not a nice feeling that I only have one bottle of antibiotics instead of two. As a mother, that hurts me. “
Serkan Boskan is a pharmacist at the Deltaweg Service Pharmacy in Helmond. According to him, the search for alternatives to antibiotics is time-consuming. “We are working on it all day long. While normally an assistant prepares the drink, explains it and gives it to the patient, it now takes much longer. For an alternative, I first have to consult with the doctor who wrote the prescription. We would rather spend that time on our care.”
For now, the sick children have no choice but to wait a long time for an alternative medicine. “It is often a drug that tastes bad and must be taken for a longer period of time. At the moment, almost all drinks are not available. We cannot help our smallest and most vulnerable patients.”
“No pharmacy has stock.”
Judith van de Mosselaar is an assistant in the Helmond pharmacy. The acute shortage of medicines also affects Judith personally. “I’m a healthcare provider, but I can’t deliver care the way I would like.”
According to the pharmacy assistant, people sometimes react angrily, but there is also understanding. “The medicine shortage has often been in the news lately. Patients are of course disappointed that there are no medicines available. They would therefore like to go to another pharmacy, but that is not the solution. We all have the same problem. Not a single pharmacy has stock .”
