4.02 The pharmacy sector should be modernised on an ongoing basis
In order to get access to most medicinal products the patients have to visit the pharmacy. The pharmacy play an important role in the treatment of patients in the primary health sector, and therefore it is extremely important that the pharmacy sector is organised in order to meet the patients’ expectations and needs.
The pharmacy sector has a very special position as a business based on private economy with a monopoly given by the authorities in a healthcare sector that is mainly established on the basis of a public health service. Basically, this means that the pharmacies have two large customers – the public authorities and the users/patients who both make demands to the pharmacy sector’s offers and services.
The pharmacy must as all other sectors ” be up to date”, and the pharmacists’ monopolistic position oblige them in a wide extent to modernise the pharmacies on an ongoing basis in order to have a patient-centric health service.
Lif believes:
- that a need for an up-to-date pharmacy sector exists, and therefore the pharmacy sector should be modernised on an ongoing basis in order to meet the population’s expectations and needs,
- that a need exists for a special comprehensive regulation of the sale of medicinal products for the users in order to guarantee a safe dispensing of medicinal products to the patients,
- that the demands may need to be changed as well as the regulation and/or the financial structure of incentives for the pharmacy sector, if the pharmacies themselves do not provide offers and services that live up to the patients’ and the society’s reasonable wishes and needs,
- that the pharmacy sector must focus on delivery of services of high quality and safety,
- that the pharmacy personnel must provide unbiased information about medicinal products, correct use of medicinal products and other information on healthcare of a high professional quality. Information on healthcare in connection with dispensing of medicinal products must be given as a minimum when it is considered necessary and is requested,
- that the professional resources of the pharmacy personnel must be used better than they generally are today,
- that the level of service at the pharmacies must be adjusted according to the users’ reasonable expectations, including the waiting time must be reduced as much as possible, and advice must be given with appropriate discretion,
- that availability of pharmacy services must be regularly adjusted the consumers' wishes and needs. The number of pharmacy units, their location and opening hours must, on an ongoing basis, be adjusted to the customers’ expectations and demands in the same way as applying for the other retail trade and other service providers,
- that the pharmacies must offer e-trading services that are adapted to the users’ needs and wishes. All pharmacies should as a minimum offer sale of both prescription medicines and over-the-counter products via Internet solutions.
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