Goodbye old pharmacy: what can be done in the new service pharmacy

Not just drugs, but more and more health services: like all the vaccines provided for in the national vaccination plan for over 12s, in addition to those for flu and Covid already available, but also salivary and oropharyngeal diagnostic swabs including tests to help choose the best antibiotic therapy for those affected by a respiratory disease. And again: telemedicine services – such as an electrocardiogram or a blood pressure and cardiac Holter – as well as the possibility of choosing your own family doctor or pediatrician without having to go to the local health authority to queue.

Here is the new push for the “service pharmacy” which during the pandemic has already had an incredible acceleration, causing old pharmacies to change their skin – just think of the boom in anti-Covid swabs and vaccines – and now with the new rules contained in the draft law on simplifications expected in the Council of Ministers as early as tomorrow or at the beginning of next week at the latest, between Monday or Tuesday when Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will also be present, it will reach a real consecration. So much so that the service pharmacies, in addition to adding new services to those they already offer today – from tests such as blood sugar or cholesterol to blood pressure control – will be able to conquer new physical spaces complete with an ad hoc sign next to the traditional green cross that distinguishes them: the draft bill on simplifications provides in fact that to provide health services “the owners of pharmacies can use premises separate from those where the pharmacy is located”, with the foresight, however, that in these same premises the collection of medical prescriptions is prohibited and any dispensing or sale of drugs or other products.”

But above all with the possibility of “placing on the premises themselves, in addition to the green cross identifying the pharmacy, a sign bearing the name Pharmacy of services” but with “suitable information on the exact identification of the owners of the pharmacy who offer the services”. Among other things, these same premises can be shared by several pharmacies which, by stipulating a network contract, will be able to share “burdens and honors” in providing these services to the citizen.

A new stage

In short, for the pharmacist it is a new leap forward in a journey that began slowly in 2009, when the first identikit of the service pharmacy was drawn up with Legislative Decree 153, which was followed by three ministerial decrees with the “list” of services that can be carried out in the pharmacy: from analyzes (blood sugar, cholesterol, hemoglobin, urine, etc.) to the measurement of blood pressure or lung capacity with auto spirometry up to the electrocardiogram in telecardiology. Also on track is the possibility, like a normal Cup, to book specialist outpatient services (visits and tests) in the hospital by paying the ticket already at the pharmacy. Then with Covid the first vaccinations and swabs also arrived. All these services have gradually entered and are now available in many pharmacies: according to recent monitoring by Federfarma, the most guaranteed ones are the monitoring of parameters (such as the measurement of blood pressure present in 98% of pharmacies), first-instance analysis tests such as blood sugar (81%), cholesterol (78%), triglycerides (73%). Finally, the Cup for booking visits and tests is found in 77% of pharmacies as well as some telemedicine services (65%).

Now, however, new services are arriving, starting with the new vaccinations which are a bit of a symbol of these transformations: today there are around 6 thousand pharmacies organized for injections (around a third of the total), but the rules of the simplification bill could increase this number given that once they come into force, it will be possible to administer vaccines identified by the National Plan at pharmacies, by appropriately trained pharmacists following the passing of a specific qualifying course and subsequent annual updates, organized by the Higher Institute of Health. of vaccination prevention for subjects aged at least twelve years”.