“a measure of extreme common sense”, greets a member of the National Academy of Pharmacy

This “dematerialization” of notices was announced on Friday by the government.

An experiment is planned for the first quarter of 2024 in pharmacies and hospitals to gradually eliminate paper instructions for medicines. The objective is, among other things, to reduce the carbon footprint of medicines.“This is a very interesting measure, which makes extreme common sense”greets on franceinfo Friday December 15 Alain Astier, member of the National Academy of Pharmacy.

“Particularly in the hospital, the fact of removing the notices in the boxes is a considerable advantage. In the hospital, we generate entire bins per day of these papers, which are of no use, because we do not distribute them to the patient leaflets”he explains.

“Instructions clutter up family pharmacies”

In pharmacy, this experiment will be “also useful”believes Alain Astier. “Very often, these instructions are not read, they are complicated to replace and clutter up family pharmacies. Information on the drug is very important, but this information must be given through channels that are more modern and more efficient, in particular the QR code. The patient who is not used to handling QR codes can always ask their pharmacist”continues Alain Astier.

“A medication leaflet is extremely regulated, you have to describe in detail all the adverse effects, even the rarest. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t give the information, but you have to simplify it, and emphasize the real problems. Information obtained by a QR code which could be more specific and less anxiety-provoking seems more useful to me”he concludes.