NEWS

E-prescriptions yielding results

Greece is saving about 30 million euros a month thanks to an electronic prescription scheme that was introduced earlier this year, it was revealed on Thursday.

The online system, which aims to cut down on waste and fraud, was launched in April and requires doctors to enter their prescriptions electronically so they can be read by pharmacists. Vlassis Sfyroreas, the head of the Computer Center for Social Security Services (IDIKA), which oversees the e-prescription scheme, said that the average cost of each prescription to taxpayers had fallen from 52.57 euros to 40.07.

Sfyroreas added that 4 out of the 12 euros saved in each prescription came from the lowering of drug prices. He said that the next step in the program must be to cut down on the number of prescriptions issued. An average of 5.5 million notes are written by doctors in Greece each month.

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