Alliance Healthcare Spain - January 2022

Trust pharmacies….explicitly

Unlike previous phases of the pandemic, this new wave and the arrival of the extremely contagious Omicron variant, seems to be having much less of an impact on hospitals and secondary care.  Instead, the pressure is being felt amongst the population’s first line of care, the authentic cornerstone of our country’s health system: primary care.

As a result, the need to use pharmacies for the management of new and varied tasks, such as administering approved antigen tests and then the reporting of respective positive cases accordingly, has emerged. In some communities, the range of tasks for pharmacies has expanded even further to include issuing Covid-19 certificates and communicating sick leave.

Pharmacy is demonstrating its competency to deliver these tasks and is receiving appreciation and recognition from within the industry, between health organisations and in the eyes of the Spanish people.  Throughout the course of the pandemic the role that community pharmacies play within our country has been firmly established – that of a trusted, credible and professional local health center.

With Omicron’s arrival and infection rates rising, priorities to protect and support certain aspects of our health system persist, with pharmacy continuing to support them and take the strain off doctors and nurses thus enabling optimal use of our country’s health resources.

Considering the constrained economic environment and the need to preserve our social system, many within the industry are calling for pharmacies to be formally acknowledged as comparable centers of health in line with other providers in the healthcare system.  We call for the community pharmacist to be recognised at the same level as a hospital, medical or nursing professional.

So it is no wonder how frustrating it has been for pharmacists that as the inoculation program has been rolled out during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, pharmacies have still not been used to help accelerate the vaccination process.  The rest of the country’s health professionals are exhausted and the health system pushed to the max as they are unable to match the rate of inoculation to the increased availability of vaccines.  In other countries such as the UK or France, when faced with the need to speed up vaccinating the population, community pharmacy was deployed as the obvious option to assist with achieving this increased demand.

In Spain our network of pharmacies spans all national territories with professionals capable of carrying out a wide range of services from administering vaccinations for both flu and Covid-19 to carrying our antigen tests, issuing Covid-19 certificates and many more.  Their geographical spread could facilitate quick and easy access to all including the elderly or chronically ill patients and help reduce congestion being seen in primary care centers.

As the pressure has increased, administrations have had to move swiftly from being reluctant to engage pharmacy in the diagnosis of Covid-19 to urgently seeking their participation.   This has proven to be a very wise decision and cemented the vital role that pharmacy has played. That the Spanish Government relies yet again on pharmacy support with the unprecedented increase of infections in this sixth wave, is testament to the positive role pharmacy plays for citizens and the health system as a whole.

As extraordinary situations continue and demand for quick responses such as fast detection of Covid-19 infections increases, pharmacy professionals remain willing to support in testing and reporting capacities. However, there is more that pharmacy can do, but this is yet to be recognised by executives.   Pharmacy has offered to carry out the monitoring, reporting and notification of positive cases along with the issue of Covid-19 certificates and these issues are being made in some CCs and AA and should be promoted by the Spanish Government to help both citizens and primary care.

Pharmacies being included as part of the solution is without position and is the only sustainable option to give some respite to the rest of the country’s health system. However, despite pharmacy having more than proven itself in the effective management of its part in the pandemic, many continue to refer to pharmacy’s participation as ‘temporary’.

Given the way our network of more than 22,000 pharmacies across Spain has proven its flexibility in adapting to new scenarios and events, and the knowledge and experience these professional have demonstrated, should have earnt them the right to be recognised permanently as accredited health centers and not just a temporary measure in times of crisis.

The pandemic continues to test the health system and the emergence of the Omicron variant has brought it to the verge of collapse. It is only because fortunately we have our pharmacies, that as a country we been able to avoid this.