Keynote abstract
Community pharmacies are increasingly recognised by members of the public as a vital, integral part of the health services in their country. They are also known to be conveniently accessible places where sound, objective advice on health issues can be obtained, from a knowledgeable health professional, in an informal environment in which they feel relaxed, without the need to make an appointment. In brief, pharmacies are obvious centres in every community for the effective transmission of messages designed to encourage healthy lifestyles and assure the population about the safety, quality and efficacy of the medicines they use.
Within the enlarged EU, over 400 000 community pharmacists provide services throughout a network of more than 160 000 pharmacies, to an estimated 46 million European citizens daily.
In recent decades, community pharmacists have evolved from a product oriented practice to a patient centred and service oriented practice. Community pharmacists have for example, firmly and strongly committed to the implementation of pharmaceutical care, developing pharmacy based programmes to improve care of people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and high blood cholesterol. In Europe, apart from these four major areas, recent initiatives comprise the elderly and medication management.
To support practice, community pharmacists have been investing in computerization of their pharmacies (in many European countries, over 90% of community pharmacies have implemented computer assisted practices, with some countries achieving rates of 100%), developing software programmes and databases on medicines interactions and contra-indications. More recently, community pharmacies have also engaged in the implementation of e-prescribing, medication records, packages scanning (for counterfeiting and withdrawals) and reporting and learning systems. In addition, community pharmacists have developed local quality circles to discuss with other health professionals (mainly prescribers) ways to improve medication safety and rational use of medicines. Several countries have also implemented quality certification procedures, to comply, for example, with ISO 9001:2000 standards.
Bearing in mind that the PGEU is the organisation representing European community pharmacists and a recognised stakeholder in the European Union (EU) arena, and in order to uncover possible answers to the question “where is EU pharmacy going?” my presentation will address the following questions:
- What do EU citizens and patients expect from healthcare?
- How do EU policy makers see healthcare?
- How is the pharmacist activity perceived in the EU?
- How can the EU dimension impact my daily practice of the Pharmacy Profession?
By addressing the above questions, participants will be taken beyond their national reality and introduced to the debate around health services and Community Pharmacy at an EU level. They will be challenged to discuss how this could influence the development of pharmacy practice in order to continue to ensure that pharmacists respond to the individual patient needs and to those of the society in general.
