Pharmacies: chaos after AI planning of emergency services
AI planning should distribute pharmacy emergency services fairly and efficiently. Problems have apparently occurred in many places since the start of the year.
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The introduction of artificial intelligence to plan emergency pharmacy services has apparently led to problems and chaos in several federal states. Various media report that customers have to travel long distances on some days, while on other days several pharmacies close to each other are open.
In theory, it sounds as if the use of AI only has advantages: It would relieve pharmacies and ensure even and the best possible distribution, is how the State Chamber of Pharmacists in Baden-Württemberg, for example, promotes the new regulation. However, little would change for citizens: “Care will continue to be taken to keep distances as short as possible. On average, two pharmacies on emergency duty are 8 kilometers apart, in over 98 percent of cases it is a maximum of 25 kilometers. Exceptions are always decided on a case-by-case basis.”
Annoyed by long distances
However, completely different experiences can be heard from the neighboring state of Bavaria: In the Landsberg district, for example, not a single pharmacy was on emergency duty on some days. “Schwabmünchen is the closest alternative in this example, a 20-minute drive away. It takes between 25 and 40 minutes to get to Weilheim and Schongau – provided you have a car,” reports the Landsberger Tagblatt.
A similar story was heard from Hesse at the end of 2023, where an emergency service reform by the State Chamber of Pharmacists also resulted in the use of AI. Pharmacists in the city of Fulda complained that several pharmacies in the city were open on some Sundays and public holidays. According to Apotheke Adhoc, the Chamber of Pharmacists justified this by saying that the AI was trying to balance out the times between pharmacies. In rural areas, where there are fewer pharmacies, experience has shown that the emergency service load with the previous emergency service districts was often higher than in urban areas, where there are more pharmacies in a small area.
No regularity between services
There is also displeasure in Baden-WĂĽrttemberg: one pharmacist complained in Apotheke Adhoc that he could hardly cope with a significantly higher workload and the additional services in terms of personnel. He also said that there was no recognizable regularity between the services.
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Heise online asked several chambers of pharmacists for comments, which were not immediately answered.
(mki)
