Find a pharmacy in Gelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen sits in the heart of North Rhine-Westphalia's Ruhr region, and its pharmacy network reflects a dense post-industrial population of roughly 260,000 residents, a sizeable Turkish-German community, and Polish and Eastern European workers tied to the city's logistics and energy sectors. PillsCard lists 35 verified pharmacies serving the two main urban halves — the older southern centre around Altstadt and Schalke, and the northern district of Buer with its independent retail high street. Pharmacies here handle a substantial chronic-disease caseload (cardiovascular medication, diabetes supplies, respiratory inhalers) reflecting the city's older demographic profile, alongside multilingual counter service for patients who prefer Turkish, Polish, or Russian when discussing prescriptions and dosage.
The market is fragmented rather than chain-dominated: German law restricts ownership to licensed pharmacists, so most outlets are owner-operated. In Buer, the Buersche Falken-Apotheke and ELISANA Apotheke Gelsenkirchen Buer anchor the Hochstraße shopping axis, while the Neue Rathausapotheke sits close to the Buer town hall and serves municipal foot traffic. Toward the southern city centre, Alte Apotheke and Neue Stadtapotheke cover the Bahnhofstraße corridor and the area around Hauptbahnhof, with Frankamp-Apotheke positioned for residents in the Resser Mark and Erle districts. Several pharmacies maintain informal referral links with the Marienhospital, the Evangelisches Krankenhaus Gelsenkirchen-Buer, and the Bergmannsheil Buer clinic for specialist medication supply and compounding requests.
Pricing & coverage
Statutory (GKV) patients pay a fixed prescription co-pay of €5 to € per item, capped at of gross annual income ( for chronically ill patients). Over-the-counter purchases are paid in full: a pack of ibuprofen mg typically runs €–€, a standard antibiotic course €–€ before reimbursement, and blood-pressure monitors €–€. Private (PKV) insurers reimburse against submitted receipts, usually at higher rates. Reimbursable medicines and substitution rules are set nationally — see the
