A quarter of Spanish residents have found medicine too expensive

NEARY a quarter, 22 per cent, of residents in Spain have had to stop taking a medication because it was too expensive, says a report.
The data was released in a study carried out by the consumers’ organisation OCU, on customer satisfaction with chemist services.
The OCU study was conducted through interviews with 1,080 users between 25 and 75 years old, with the goal of learning how many times and for what users visit a chemist’s, if they had encountered problems and what other kinds of services they wished chemists would offer.
A total of 37 per cent of consumers claimed that they had had to wait more than 24 hours to purchase a medicine because of lack of stock.
As much as 29 per cent of users were able to buy products that needed prescription without it, although most, 63 per cent, had never tried to buy a medicine without having a prescription and eight per cent had tried but were not able to obtain it.
Out of those who were able to obtain the medicines without a necessary prescription, the majority promised to bring the document later, were known by the chemist or had a very obvious health problem.
Data indicates that chemists are highly regarded by consumers: 70 per cent always go to the same shop, 28 per cent go to two or three different ones and only two per cent change chemists frequently.
According to the organisation, the most valued aspects by users were proper treatment and friendliness (92 per cent), clear and understandable language (91 per cent), the chemist’s knowledge (90 per cent) and the quality of information provided (84 per cent).
The biggest negative issues were the price of products besides medication (44 per cent), lack of information (22 per cent), lack of privacy in the facilities (22 per cent) and long waiting times (18 per cent).

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