[How do pharmacists evaluate the newly introduced system of substituting prescriptions?]

In 1997 a new prescription system was introduced in the Danish health care system. The pharmacist must now substitute a prescription with a cheaper version of the drug (either generic or original) unless the prescribing doctor indicates that substitution is not allowed in the specific case. The purpose of this study was to evaluate problems of the system and obtain the pharmacists' views on the system. The study was based on questionnaires to a representative sample of 75 pharmacists (a quarter of Denmark's pharmacists). The response rate was 72%. Half of the pharmacists were dissatisfied with the system, which primarily was due to the excessive workload imposed. In spite of this, about half the pharmacists wanted the system to be continued, because the overall purpose of finding the cheapest drug for the patient is good. Nearly all pharmacists thought that analogue substitution (substitution between drugs with the same overall effects but obtained by different means) should not be introduced.