About 1,500 to 2,000 people visit Luxembourg’s close to 100 pharmacies on a daily basis. Customer picking up medicines at a pharmacy usually get instructions on how to use each substance. According to Claude Hoster-Pfeiffer, pharmacists should also be given an opportunity to help manage long-term treatments, which can often be complicated for patients suffering from serious diseases.
Another idea is to introduce consulting pharmacists, as is already practice in Belgium. Consulting pharmacists help patients set up a medication plan, which can be regularly updated.
Read also: Many patients are overburdened by the process of taking their medication correctly The Pharmacists’ Syndicate also believes that they should be able to do more in terms of prevention. The white paper laments that pharmacists were only allowed to vaccinate people against Covid-19 during the most severe phase of the pandemic, for instance. This expertise might also be of use for the regular flu shot, notes the Syndicate.
It is also believed that communication between doctors and pharmacists should be improved to involve them in research and pilot projects.
Despite persisting drug shortages, pharmacies have been able to always find suitable alternatives thus far, says Hostert-Pfeiffer. She elaborated that this is a global problem, but that Luxembourg’s neighbouring countries have helped cover important imports while the search for alternatives continues.
According to the Syndicate, pharmacists spend an average of ten hours per week on finding alternative drugs, which is twice the amount of time that they used to need. This time would better be used on patients, argues Hostert-Pfeiffer.
