Asking “for advice from the pharmacist is part of taking care of yourself. Talking to the professional about drugs, including over-the-counter” and over-the-counter drugs or “supplements, allows you to avoid interactions with therapies already underway. In fact, the patient’s health is always at the center.” This was said by Marco Cossolo, president of Federfarma, the national federation of pharmacy owners, to Adnkronos Salute, on the occasion of International Self-Care Day, the day that the World Health Organization dedicates “to the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote their own health, prevent illnesses, stay healthy and deal with illnesses and disabilities with or without the support of a health worker”, which is celebrated today.
“Taking care of people in all respects” is a central part of the pharmacist’s profession, “beyond ‘self care’ – observes Cossolo – His professional contribution is fundamental, his advice both on drugs that are dispensed with a medical prescription and without a prescription, but also on food supplements and on advice on how to treat small problems, such as small wounds, and other activities that concern health. Everything that has happened during the last pandemic period – he underlines – the new roles that have been entrusted to the pharmacist also with regard to telemedicine, analyses and vaccinations”, show that “the awareness of the need to be protagonists” of one’s own health has grown.
“Many opinion polls – highlights the Federfarma president – reveal the centrality of the pharmacist in managing the health of citizens who come to the pharmacy not only to buy drugs” or to receive a health service, “but above all for the advice of a professional” who helps them take care of their health, to “become aware that health also depends on their choices”. The clarification requested from the professional, who very often knows the patient’s pathologies and therapies, can not only solve a small health problem such as a headache, joint pain, a cold, but “avoid more serious problems or interactions between drugs”. His “being a reference” in promoting people to take care of their health “is a role inherent in the profession of the pharmacist – specifies Cossolo – recognized over time by legislators of different political orientations. The pharmacist is a professional who helps the citizen maintain a state of health and well-being” by dispensing “advice on correct lifestyle and dietary habits, on prescription drugs, those on free sale” such as OTC, “and on supplements”.
In this regard, “in Italy all drugs are always dispensed in the presence of the pharmacist – Cossolo recalls – Even OTCs, which do not require a prescription because they are widely used, of documented efficacy and with few side effects and which can be sold online”, are always “dispensed under the responsibility of the professional because the site must refer to that of a real pharmacy and be authorized with the ministerial certification stamp”. This aspect is of particular importance, if we consider the aging of the population and the polytherapies to which especially the over 65s are subjected. The pharmacist can in fact warn of any “interactions between OTC drugs and those used by the citizen, but also possible problems related to foods and any supplements: all this is entrusted to the responsibility of the professional”.
In this context, “with the advent of online, the relationship between pharmacist and patient” has not disappeared, indeed “it has strengthened – concludes Cossolo – but this fact is independent of online: it is rather linked to the role of the pharmacy, it is linked to the territorial health facility of reference which is the pharmacy”.
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