Luo Zhihua
In the past few days, with the arrival of the peak of the new coronavirus infection in many places, the demand for related therapeutic drugs has increased significantly, among which antipyretic drugs such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen are in short supply.
In response to the sharp increase in demand for related drugs, many places have introduced policies to continue to make efforts to ensure product supply, including Hubei, Shandong, Zhejiang and other places are increasing their supply guarantees to produce ibuprofen and put it on the market.
In addition, the policy of dismantling and selling antipyretics has also been introduced one after another. The drug regulatory departments in Beijing, Nanjing and other places have clearly proposed that for large-package antipyretics put in pharmacies, they are strictly required to be dismantled and sold on demand.
While people are still worrying about not being able to buy sought-after medicines, some changes are quietly taking place in society.
In addition to the dismantling and selling of antipyretics that are popular among the public, some pharmacies also consciously dismantle popular medicines and give them away for free. "Sharing leftover medicines" is also quietly popular in WeChat groups in some communities.
The experience sharing of "I only used 3 tablets of ibuprofen in the whole process" has attracted widespread attention, and phenomena such as "hoarding medicines and not taking them all expired" are becoming more and more common on hot searches.
These changes may seem insignificant, but they are of great enlightenment to the guaranteed supply of medicines that are currently in short supply.
These phenomena release a common message: the actual dosage of many popular medicines is very small, and people will inevitably face the situation that they will not run out of medicines after hoarding medicines. Instead of dealing with expired medicines in the future, it is better to find a way to solve the problem now.
Take the antipyretic drugs ibuprofen and acetaminophen as an example. A box of medicines can range from a few pills to dozens of pills. Even if the whole family develops fever symptoms after infection, there are not many antipyretics that can be used in the end.
In fact, the public also understands this truth. The dismantling and selling of these medicines by pharmacies can not only save a lot of scarce medicines, but also the people are willing to accept them.
In addition, a village doctor in Xi'an recently gave away 1,000 tablets of antipyretics divided into 100 parts, which also aroused social concern-something can be done with the power of a village doctor, which shows that the cost of doing so is not high, but the effect is very good.
These changes remind the society that the root cause of the "drug shortage" is "palpitation", that is to say, it is not that the total amount of medicines such as antipyretics is insufficient, but that some people hoard medicines too much, making it difficult for others to buy these medicines in a short time .
As long as the public is not panicked, many sought-after medicines will appear to be more than enough.
In order for the public not to panic, it is necessary to ensure that they have medicines available when they are in urgent need. In addition to dismantling and retailing can quickly improve the accessibility of these medicines, use "community medicine boxes" and "building medicine boxes" to temporarily replace family medicines. The box can also greatly improve the use efficiency of related medicines in the short term, so that residents no longer worry about the lack of medicines available, thereby reducing irrational hoarding of medicines.
The "surplus drug sharing" model with the nature of network sharing is a forward-looking reminder.
The biggest feature of the network sharing model is to reduce intermediate costs and efficiently connect supply and demand, so as to maximize the use value of resources. The current network sharing products such as online car-hailing fully reflect this feature.
The spontaneous formation of "surplus medicine sharing" among residents is worth promoting, and if the residents' mutual assistance model can be upgraded to a commercial model, the benefit area will be significantly expanded.
Of course, medicines are not ordinary commodities. After the medicines are disassembled, the safety of medicines has become a key issue that cannot be ignored.
Pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies, hospitals, especially grassroots medical institutions should guide patients on medication in various ways to ensure medication safety.
In order to cool down the hot rush to buy medicines and make medicines available to people in the critical period of epidemic prevention, more good measures such as dismantling and retail sales and "sharing of surplus medicines" should be introduced.
While resolving the current shortage of medicines, it is advisable to preserve and improve some good practices and new ideas, so as to create some new ways and models for the guaranteed supply of medicines in short supply in the future.