According to Karkkila pharmacy pharmacist Sari Westermarck, customers need a lot of advice with self-medication.
For the government program The policies concerning pharmacies are contradictory, says the chairman of the pharmacists’ union and the pharmacist of Tapiola’s pharmacy Risto Kanerva.
For example, the board program has written about increasing the duties of pharmacies. The goal is to reduce the pressure on primary care. On the other hand, money is being cut from pharmacies.
“Two completely different things may have crept into the same sentence. There are good openings, but it remains unclear what the government wants from pharmacies,” says Kanerva.
One the thing that Kanerva pays particular attention to is reliability of maintenance. According to Kanerva, if the goal of online pharmacies separate from brick-and-mortar pharmacies recorded in the government program is realized, the realization of security of supply is at risk. Currently, an online pharmacy can only be established in connection with a brick-and-mortar pharmacy.
Finland’s drug stocks are distributed among pharmacies around the country, thanks to which medicines are more reliably available even in exceptional circumstances.
“If the online pharmacy business starts to eat up small pharmacies in the provinces, regional stocks may shrink or disappear from these areas,” says Kanerva.
Also vice president of the pharmacists’ union and pharmacist of the Karkkila pharmacy Sari Westermarck find problems with the program.
For example, it is recorded in the government program that the realization of rational drug treatment is ensured. However, according to Westermarck, the liberalization of the sale of over-the-counter medicines, also included in the program, would mean abandoning the principles of rational medical treatment.
“The choice of medicine must be based on the customer’s genuine need, not what is available on the store shelf,” he says.
It is clear from Westermarck’s experience that without professional advice, people end up using drugs they don’t need or that don’t suit them.
Westermarck says that numerous misconceptions related to over-the-counter medicines are corrected in the pharmacy every day.
“Even this week, I have told several customers that I do not recommend the medicine that they have come to buy. Often, another medicinal product is better suited to the customer’s problem,” says Westermarck.
The pharmacy can check the compatibility of the medicine with the customer’s other medication. For example, standard anti-inflammatory drugs should not be used together with blood thinners.
Customers may also seek self-medication for wrong ailments.
“For example, this week a customer came to pick up an athlete’s foot medicine, but in the conversation it turned out that he only has sweaty feet,” says Westermarck.
Westermarck reminds that pharmacies do not aim to increase the use of medicines, but to reduce it. If the sale of over-the-counter medicines were to be liberalized, it is likely that the sale and use of medicines would also increase.
According to Westermarck, an increase in sales would also mean more drug waste. At the same time, reducing pharmaceutical waste and waste is one of the goals of the government program.
Mixed Westermarck and Kanerva also find a lot of good in the pharmacy guidelines of the government program.
“There are a lot of things that really make our work more efficient,” says Kanerva.
He thinks it’s great that the government wants to clarify the supply of prescription drugs. In practice, this means that pharmacists do not have to call the doctor every time the medicine is changed at the pharmacy.
Both think it is also a good thing that the expertise of pharmacy staff is being used even more as part of social and health care. The government is investigating, among other things, whether the operation of pharmacies could be expanded to, for example, vaccinations in the future.
“In many European countries, pharmacies were used significantly for vaccinations and testing during the pandemic,” says Wesertmarck.
The reform would require pharmacists to be trained for new tasks. Currently, pharmacists do not have rights to give vaccinations.
In addition the government would like to make it possible to operate a pharmacy in the form of a limited company. The goal is to find out the possibilities of expanding the ownership base of pharmacies, for example by allowing pharmacists to act as shareholders.
Currently, only pharmacists licensed in Finland can act as partners in a pharmacy company.
“The matter has been discussed in the industry for a long time, and it is interesting to see how this would be implemented in practice,” says Westermarck.
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