New law shuts down Denmark’s 24-hour pharmacies

Health minister underlines that citizens will still be able to have their medicine delivered outside of normal working hours

Due to a new law, from 2017 it will no longer be possible to pop down to the 24-hour pharmacy for a prescription after normal business hours.

The pharmacy law means that the pharmacies will lose their grants from 2017 and 11 pharmacies in Denmark’s major cities open 24 hours will no longer be open at night.

“We don’t think that this is very fortunate,” Vagn Jelsøe, the deputy head of the consumer council Forbrugerrådet Tænk, told Politiken newspaper.

“The pharmacy duty service must work and consumers aren’t served well with a deterioration.”

READ MORE: Debate on prescription drugs: call for cheaper medication

Emergency clinics 
The number of national duty pharmacies, which can deliver medicine from 06:00-24:00 – including at weekends – will be reduced from 50 to 34. The grant for these pharmacies is also being removed.

The health minister Sophie Løhde has underlined that citizens will be able to have their medicine delivered outside of normal working hours, despite the law.

In future, citizens will still be able to get their prescriptions filled from emergency clinics if they have been in contact with a doctor on duty.

The new pharmacy law was approved by a majority in Parliament and will be implemented over the course of the next 18 months.





  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.