Pharmacies in Luxembourg lost on average €340 per out-of-hours shift in 2017, a report has found Olivier Minaire/archives

Pharmacies in Luxembourg lost on average €340 per out-of-hours shift in 2017, a report has found Olivier Minaire/archives

In a joint response to a parliamentary question from MP Josée Lorsché (Déi Gréng), finance minister Pierre Gramegna (DP) and economy minister Etienne Schneider (LSAP) said that a nationwide study conducted with the union of pharmacists found pharmacies did 3,369 out-of-hours shifts in 2017.

Depending on the location of the pharmacy, the losses incurred by providing this emergency service started at €100 per shift and reached up to €1,000. On average, there was a net loss of €340 per shift.

The ministerial response said that they hoped to introduce a remuneration for pharmacies that would be enshrined in law, “following the example of the practice applied to emergency doctors.”

They added that the 2019 budget is still underway so it was too soon to give concrete figures as to how much pharmacies would receive in compensation.

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