Pharmacies: from home remedies to tests, 90% of Italians demand more services

More than 90% of Italians are in favour of expanding the services available in pharmacies, even though not many are well informed about the ongoing trial. 92.2% recognise the support given to the most fragile and the fundamental role of presidium (for 90% there is always a pharmacy nearby and open) as well as the contribution made during the pandemic (90%). These are the data from the report 'The new pharmacy pillar of the SSN. Prospettive ed opportunità" carried out by Censis with the support of Federfarma on a sample of more than 1,000 adults aged 18 and over. "76.1% of those interviewed also viewed favourably an extension of the role of the pharmacy, called upon to become an important garrison of territorial medicine," said Ketty Vaccaro, head of Biomedical Research and Health at Censis. "However, some fear that not all of them are able to do so, with the risk of maintaining the profound differences in supply in the territory.

Pharmacies had long since gone well beyond the dispensing of medication, but an important expansion of the activities and services available in pharmacies, such as tests and vaccinations, is linked to the measures decided following the pandemic. Many of the activities linked to the new role are already the subject of the 'Service Pharmacy' experimentation underway in the regions. According to Censis research, half of Italians (50.1%) visit the pharmacy once a month and 41.8% of the over-64s once a week, as do 50.6% of those with an unsatisfactory state of health. The data also highlight the trend towards loyalty towards a single pharmacy, with 60.0% stating that they have a trusted pharmacy they always go to, regardless of a specificity of offer in services or prices.

For the president of Federfarma, Marco Cossolo 'the positive evaluations expressed by citizens, but also their high expectations, confirm that it is now necessary to work in synergy with institutions and other health professionals to make the service pharmacy model structural within the SSN'.

Those interviewed would like a wide range of services to be made available in their pharmacy of choice: from home delivery of medicines for frail people (82.7%), to the distribution of medicines and prescriptions on behalf of the local health authority (76.4%), from the availability of tests for measuring cholesterol, blood glucose, etc. (73.3%) to a counter for booking visits and examinations (72.3%). They do not appear to be particularly aware of the experimentation with service pharmacies, which is under way in many regions (only 31.1% are aware of it), but almost two thirds (68.9%) of those interviewed report at least one service already present in their usual pharmacy as being part of the experimentation. And while not many claim to have used it, the percentages of those who would like to have this new range of services are much higher: first and foremost screening for the prevention of hypertension or diabetes (82.1%), dispensing of medicines and medical devices to patients in home, residential and semi-residential care (81.7%); the possibility of making the choice of general practitioner and free-choice paediatrician (79.6%), the presence of nurses for dressings and/or other activities (77.5%) and the administration to those over 12 years of age of other vaccines, no longer just those against Covid and influenza (62.2%).

Also speaking at the presentation of the report was the undersecretary for Health, Marcello Gemmato, who combines a training as a pharmacist with a political career. 'Today Censis has certified what I am convinced of,' he said, 'and this, as a politician, fills me with pride. It is therefore clear that the issue of conflict of interest, of which I am accused in numerous articles, including one just published, does not exist. I am doing what the people are asking us to do, not the pharmacists' lobby'.