“It is important to focus on the fragile patient, and in particular on the patient suffering from chronic pathologies, such as COPD, asthma and diabetes, and it is necessary that there is a system approach to the entire treatment path of this patient , in which vaccination plays a key role. This applies both from the point of view of the fragile patient, but also from the point of view of the system. From the patient’s point of view, the pharmacy plays an absolutely critical role, both for a matter of proximity, but also for a matter of timing with which the patient appears at the pharmacy”. This was said by Silvia La Rosa, vice president and business unit head of vaccines at GSK Italia, on the sidelines of the panel ‘Proximity and telemedicine for the strengthening of local assistance and more effective management of chronic conditions’, held during the event “Towards a full implementation of the pharmacy services. As a contribution to improving the quality of life of citizens”, promoted by Federfarma Lombardia and The European House-Ambrosetti, with the non-conditional contribution of Gsk, MSD, Pfizer and Teva.
“The data shows that in the Lombardy Region alone there are around 800 thousand patients who enter the pharmacy every day and 74% of Lombard patients go to the pharmacy once a month – explains La Rosa – It follows that the role of the pharmacy is as important as also leverage for planning and organizing vaccination throughout the year. I am not only thinking of the need for vaccination close to the flu season, with the flu and anti-Covid vaccine, but also of the new vaccination that we as a company are bringing against the respiratory syncytial virus and of vaccines for adults, which can and must be seasonally adjusted, such as the vaccine against the herpes zoster virus”.
The ever-increasing involvement of pharmacies in the management of chronic conditions and in the monitoring of therapeutic adherence, but also in support of screening and prevention campaigns – it emerged from the meeting – means that they provide an important contribution to maintaining good health and therefore to the sustainability of the healthcare system and, more generally, of the socio-economic system.
“From a system point of view, vaccination is an investment in health, particularly with regard to adult vaccinations. The perspective must not be that of the return on an investment in vaccination – continues La Rosa – but rather the cost that is paid for that population that becomes ill and for that percentage of fragile patients that worsens with the arrival of an infection that would have could have been avoided through the availability of a vaccine.”
To “deal with this situation it is important to talk about it all together as involved stakeholders and the presence of a control room is also necessary with respect to a very broad governance, in which public hygiene centers and hospitals are involved as a point of reference for immunocompromised patients , the general practitioner and the pharmacies”, he concludes.
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