There will be less and less of the galenic part left. Because pharmacies, shortly and thanks to the Simplifications bill, will become to all intents and purposes small local clinics. Places that will end up alongside, if not competing with, general practitioners and paediatricians of free choice: they will range between pediatric tests, home care and telemedicine. Services which compared to the past will be provided with a wider scope and which above all will be reimbursed as happens for other actors by the national health service: that is, with public money, when the new LEA system is operational. The recipe will suffice.
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The news
To underline this revolution, next to the canonical identifying green cross there will also be a sign to clarify the new mission of the business: that of the “Service Pharmacy”. A project dreamed of in the 2009 sector reform but never actually realised. Big news with the Simplifications bill – expected between Monday and Tuesday in the Council of Ministers – for white coats: in the drafts in circulation there is a substantial package of rules that extends the activity of the almost 20 thousand pharmacies spread across Italian territory. After the outbreak of Covid, around 6 thousand facilities actively participated in the vaccination campaign. Nearly 80 percent already offer some telemedicine services. In almost all cases, blood pressure is measured or blood is taken. However, the new rules, in addition to laying the foundations for reimbursement of these services by the national health service, in fact recognize the pharmacy’s active role as a healthcare provider on a par with small clinics.
Stop at this
But what will the new service pharmacy be like? In addition to the additional sign, the owners are given the opportunity to prepare special rooms for the new functions. In which the collection of medical prescriptions and any dispensing or sale of medicines or other products will be prohibited. Pharmacies will then have to maintain a distance of 200 meters between each other. Looking at the new services, compared to the past, pharmacists will be able to carry out diagnostic tests to combat antibiotic resistance, requested by the general practitioner or paediatrician of free choice “for the purposes of prescribing appropriateness”, all types of vaccinations , salivary and oropharyngeal diagnostic swabs with sample collection. Those that are now only done in hospitals or laboratories. They will provide more telemedicine services. On the front of first instance tests, such as analyzes carried out on capillary blood, there will be a real liberalization on the type of machinery to be used. Also in the bill, it is added that to drugs tout court “dispensing on behalf of healthcare facilities” will also concern “medical devices necessary for the treatment of patients in home, residential and semi-residential care”. In the pharmacy you can also choose the general practitioner and pediatrician of your choice. For operators, however, there will be more obligations: they will be authorized by the local health authorities and on the training front: following the paths already started for Covid vaccinations, they will have to pass a qualifying course at the Higher Institute of Health, especially for vaccinations and new diagnostic tests.
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