Councilor Donini: “A further step forward confirming the innovative approach we have chosen”
There are several innovations envisaged by the biennial protocol which intends to enhance the role of the pharmacist in the network with doctors. A communication campaign is planned
Telemedicine services, brief counseling projects on lifestyles, support in the correct management of therapies for chronic patients and in the personalized approach to antibiotic therapy.
26 July 2023 – In Emilia Romagna the pharmacies are getting closer to the citizens, thanks to the new memorandum of understanding between the Region not Trade associations of affiliated pharmacies, which takes another step forward in the Pharmacy of Services.
Since 2019, in fact, Emilia-Romagna has been engaged in the creation and development of this reality – which sees pharmacies as an increasingly strong presence in the area, capable of providing services and rapid responses to the needs of the community – but with this new agreement is further enhanced the role of the pharmacist so that it can offer a useful service shared with doctors.
The protocol – consistent with the indications of the National Health Commission on the experimentation of new services – has a two-year duration and defines different fields of activity: cognitive services (monitoring of adherence to therapy, recognition of drug therapy, indications to the patient on the correct method of taking drugs, detection of suspected adverse reactions to drug treatments), front office services for the Electronic Health Record, telemedicine services , administration of Coronavirus vaccines and flu vaccines. And again, strengthening the role of pharmacies as places in which to carry out initiatives in support of prevention, health promotion as well as territorialisation in access to treatment (for example, personalized delivery of the antibiotic therapy prescribed in application of the National Antibiotic Action Plan resistance; screening projects). A campaign of comunication of the regional health service, which will be implemented in the coming months, will explain the main changes to citizens.
“During the pandemic, pharmacies, present throughout our territory, have been fundamental points of reference for citizens also in the provision of drug-welfare services, and will continue to be so – underlines the councilor for health policies, Raffaele Donini-. With this agreement we are taking a further step forward, to the benefit of the territory and the people. To achieve these objectives, the Region has promoted and supported an innovative approach in the creation and development of the Pharmacy of Services. This has allowed, over the years, to consolidate the role of the pharmacist and the pharmacy increasingly understood as a territorial garrison, a point of reference for the community, to which assistance and simplification of patient pathways can be ensured”.
“We sign the memorandum of understanding confident that together with the institutions we will continue to work to give more and more meaning to the pharmacy of services – is the comment of the president of ASSO.FARM. Venantius Gizzi and the regional coordinator Egidio Campari – It is now important to continue working jointly to identify operational priorities, standardizing methodologies with all local Health Authorities and guaranteeing fair and equitable remuneration criteria for pharmacies, precious presences in the area capable of promptly responding to health requests from citizens who see, in the figure of the pharmacist, one of the first references with a high appreciation of great trust”.
“We are confident that we will be able to do our part for an increasingly proximity healthcare: this agreement opens the door to the development of further pharmacy services that will help improve people’s health, also shortening waiting lists – he continues Achille Gallina Toschi, president of Federfarma Emilia-Romagna-. We are and will increasingly be an integral part of the National Health System, but in order for the pharmacy’s mission to be fully accomplished, we must also work to guarantee the citizen a ‘close to home’ service also for medicines, optimizing the methods of distribution”.
“Farmacieunite signs this new agreement which, in addition to confirming the numerous services that the citizens of Emilia-Romagna usually use in each pharmacy, looks to the future by providing for the activation of new health services in pharmacies such as ECG, holter and spirometry – he adds the regional coordinator of Farmacieunite, Stephen Ferretti -. We now hope, always in harmony with the Region, that the pharmacy can be ever more central to the health system of Emilia-Romagna, above all by facilitating access to all medicines for citizens as much as possible, reducing bureaucratic aspects and favoring as much as possible the proximity”.
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Among the areas of intervention envisaged by the agreement is also that of involving the affiliated pharmacies more and more by integrating them into the networks of health services on issues such as the early interception of health needs and the correct management of therapies for chronic patients included in diagnostic therapeutic care pathways multiprofessionals.
In particular, for i patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in collaboration with general practitioners and sector specialists, activities will be defined and implemented to promote the activity of the pharmacist with a view to constant improvement of patient adherence to therapy. The pharmacist will provide the patient with instructions on the correct way to take medicines at home and will be able to intercept any adverse reactions. The goal is to involve a total of about 25,000 patients throughout the region (equal to about 16% of the predominant patients affected by COPD in the region), to whom one interview will be offered each year.
As early as 2021, in Emilia-Romagna, pharmacies have joined an active pharmacovigilance project which has led to the creation of sentinel pharmacies prepared for the detection of possible adverse reactions when taking medicines.
Furthermore, pharmacies will be involved on an experimental basis in thedelivery personalized antibiotic therapy prescribed, in line with what is indicated in the National Plan to combat antibiotic resistance. Emilia-Romagna has been busy for some time in activities to promote the correct use of antibiotics and to monitor and control infections in all healthcare settings.
As for the telemedicinehowever, the areas of intervention will be defined which will concern the involvement of pharmacies, in particular those located in the most disadvantaged areas, in the provision of telemonitoring services in close relationship with basic or specialist medicine, intervening in specific areas, such as for example pressure Holter, cardiac Holter, Auto-Spirometry and ECG.
Finally, pharmacies will be involved in brief counseling projects on lifestylesan opportunity with a view to promoting health in the community, to be implemented in continuity and harmony with the regional activities related to the 2021-2025 Regional Prevention Plan.
The activities will concern support for the implementation of communication campaigns to combat HIV/AIDS, participation in the “Movement pills” campaign in the promotion of motor activity, participation in projects on correct lifestyles, promotion of the prevention project of colorectal cancer through the management of delivery of the kit and the start of the sample collection function, the promotion of correct behavior aimed at combating driving while intoxicated also through the diffusion of the use of the alcohol test.