I have been using an online pharmacy (apotheek), De Thuisapotheek, for repeat prescriptions (herhaalrecepten) and have found them very good. They sent us an e-mail to say that they are stopping this service, because of lack of cooperation with doctors (huisarts). Here is a rough translation of what they wrote:
More than 100,000 people have in the past 5 years to be logged in to customer at De Thuisapotheek. The conversion of enrolled patients to ordering patients, with the cooperation of the physician is required, it appears more problematic than expected. The choice of the patient it is not always respected. In the opinion of De Thuisapotheek is a major obstacle to free market forces in health care.
Where we live our only options for repeat prescriptions are to order them from the huisarts or go to the one local pharmacy. You can only pick them up at the huisarts between 4:00-5:00 on weekdays and need to stand in a long line, and the local pharmacy is only open during business hours on weekdays.
I contacted a few other online pharmacies and they all require that we post an original prescription via snail mail every time we want to order. This pretty much defeats any convenience of ordering online.
I find the system for repeat prescriptions in NL to be completely un-customer friendly and archaiac. Especially for chronic medical conditions, I don't understand why I can't supply a perscription once, and then renew as needed. They treat customers like children who have no control over their healthcare, and have no respect for making their business convenient for their customers.
Does anyone know a good online pharmacy (apotheek) where you don't need to provide the prescription every time?
