Medication Supply for People in Precarious Living Situations - Written Survey on Medical Help

Abstract

Even though most of the people living in Germany have access to the healthcare system, it does not apply to all. To improve access for people in need, some, mostly voluntary, medical care centers were founded, to meet at least the most basic medical needs. There are isolated references to these projects, but none of these explain how people without access to the healthcare system obtain their medicines. The aim of this study was to use a questionnaire to identify the problems and point out approaches to help solve these issues. Medical care centers, found by online research, were sent a questionnaire, asking how they organized the supply of drugs, if they covered the demand, and the drug groups that were the most common in demand. Result Most of the drugs were handed out via 'private' prescriptions, for which the patient usually had to pay the full price, but the projects covered the costs via donations. Drugs most in demand were for treating infectious, psychological, and skin diseases as well as pain treatment. Chronic diseases mostly could not be treated permanently. Acute care with drugs seems to be widely covered by the medical care centers and their donations, but the treatment of chronic diseases is rarely covered. The research was limited by the online accessible information about how to contact the mostly voluntary organizations. Where there was lack of documentation, data were estimated by the centers involved; therefore, this study can only be used as an estimation of the situation on how people in need have access to medications CONCLUSION: The evaluated questionnaire shows a deficit in medical care. More monetary donations are needed to cover the needs and to maintain standards as in the regular healthcare system. More analyses are needed to quantify and qualify the deficit more precisely. New ways of providing high-standard healthcare have to be found, including access to drugs for everyone.