Lisbon, Dec. 30, 2024 (Lusa) - Around 1,800 pharmacies have signed up for the nearby dispensing service for hospital medicines, which will be extended to all institutions from January, after a month in which eight units tested this access on 40 patients.
Speaking to Lusa, the president of the Association of Pharmacists, Helder Mota Filipe, underlined the advantages of proximity access to medication that patients previously had to pick up from hospital pharmacies, explaining that users have to meet certain criteria to be able to access the service, including stabilisation of the disease and adherence to medication.
‘I hope that [each organisation involved] is now doing its work in December so that in January we can have everything in place so that around 150,000 to 200,000 patients can have access to medicines nearby,’ he said, adding that there are already around 1,800 pharmacies signed up.
Helder Mota Filipe emphasised the advantages of this service, both for the health service and for users: ‘When we have support nearby, with a network of around 11,000 community pharmacists, this helps to clarify doubts, to ensure people take the medication’.
In December, the pilot project involved eight health service institutions (seven Local Health Units and one Portuguese Oncology Institute), which tested the circuit on around 40 patients.
The president pointed out that many patients travel a long way to pick up their medication, emphasising that this proximity service has already shown its advantages: ‘Each hospital felt the need to create a response to their patients during Covid-19 and this has shown its advantages.’
Regarding the rules for patients to enter this service, he said that a prior pharmaceutical consultation at the hospital defines whether the patient is eligible. The patients make the decision to choose the pharmacy where they can pick up their hospital medication.
When Lusa questioned him, he acknowledged that not all hospitals have pharmacist consultations could delay this service. However, he pointed out that hospital outpatient pharmacists will be more available because the more patients they transfer to the neighbourhood, the fewer they will have in the hospital each month to dispense medication.
He recognised that a greater effort would have to be made at the beginning to ensure that pharmaceutical consultations are necessary because then ‘these patients will require less from the hospital pharmacy because they will be [being followed] nearby’ in a dispensing service that includes a total of 150 active substances.
A study by the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators (APAH) concluded that patients travel an average of 100 to 112 kilometres to pick up medication at the hospital. Each user spends around €260 a year on these journeys.
‘If we manage to avoid these journeys for patients who are very frail or who go about their normal lives but have to go to hospital every month and miss work, this alone is a huge saving for the system,’ said Helder Mota Filipe.
The president recalled that the pandemic forced many patients to access their medicines at neighbourhood pharmacies and that, post-pandemic, the data collected showed that 91% of patients who accessed their medication at a neighbourhood pharmacy ‘were satisfied and wanted to continue to have access to these medicines at their pharmacy’.
‘There are several aspects, all in the interests of patients, that we, as responsible people, cannot ignore in any way,’ said the president, adding: “We have a responsibility to implement this service as quickly as possible and the Association will not agree to any delays, for whatever reason, because it is for the good of patients,” he emphasised.
SO/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
