The demand for face masks has caused failures in the Catalan Health Service's IT system this Monday. Catalonia's pharmaceutical prescription system (SIFARE) has been overwhelmed by the demand, to the point where neither masks nor prescription medicines were able to be sold during some periods today.
The Catalan government had announced that the first million and a half face masks out of an order of 14 million would be available to the public starting on April 20th, with each CatSalut user entitled to the first mask free. This was announced a few days ago as a further protective measure to curb the spread of coronavirus, with masks having been difficult to obtain in many places over the weeks of the crisis.
The Catalan health ministry had called for people to exercise responsibility this morning and not to make a special trip out during lockdown simply to obtain their mask. Yet, despite the rain, some queues formed at pharmacy entrances, and chemists reported that most customers were asking for the masks.
Around 100,000 masks had been dispensed in just one hour, before the system began to have problems around 10 am. Pharmacies then began advising of the difficulties to keep people from queueing, possibly in vain, in the wet.
⚠️ Si us plau, quedeu-vos a casa i no vingueu a buscar la #mascareta ja que el sistema de #receptaelectrònica està col·lapsat i no funciona. Us mantindrem informats, gràcies. #sifare #catsalut #targetasanitaria pic.twitter.com/3YesnBgfj8
— Farmàcia Isern (@FarmaciaIsern) April 20, 2020
Translation:
"Please stay home and do not come for the #mask as the #prescription system is congested and it is not working. We will keep you updated, thank you." - Isern Pharmacy, 10.48am on Monday morning
In other cases, the system froze in mid-operation. After a few tries and 20 minutes of waiting, some users were able to get their masks.
ElNacional.cat
In some pharmacies, masks were dispensed while taking note manually of users' health card numbers, to be inserted in the system later when it recovered. And in addition, the problems affected prescriptions in general, which was especially significant as Mondays are a key day for medication demand. The Barcelona Pharmacists Association appealed to the public to only pick up masks today if they really needed them immediately.
Late on Monday afternoon, pharmacists said they were still having some problems with the IT system, but said that people who needed medicines should not be deterred.
What sort of masks are being distributed?
Pharmacies are distributing so-called triple layer 2R surgical masks. They protect the environment around the person wearing it - that is, they stop people from spreading the virus but are not designed to prevent the wearer from catching it. Also, they are not intended to be reusable masks, but if kept carefully (avoiding getting them wet and not washing them), they can be used more than once.