Community pharmacists are among the most accessible healthcare professionals in Europe, supporting patients every day through a network of more than 200,000 pharmacies across 33 European countries. At its Annual Conference in Wrocław, held under the theme “Ensuring Europe’s health preparedness”, PGEU launched its new Position Paper on Health Preparedness, outlining how community pharmacies and pharmacists can further strengthen Europe’s capacity to prevent, prepare for and respond to health crises.

Recent crises have exposed structural vulnerabilities in Europe’s health systems, from pandemics and epidemics to medicine shortages, cyber and energy disruptions, natural disasters and war-driven population displacement. Throughout these challenges, community pharmacies remained open and continued to provide support to patients and communities.

Pharmacists ensured continuity of treatment, supported vaccination and testing campaigns, helped manage shortages, provided health advice, and contributed to access to medicines, medical countermeasures, diagnostics and personal protective equipment. These experiences have shown that the community pharmacy network is a vital part of Europe’s health preparedness and response capacity.

PGEU President Mikołaj Konstanty said: “Europe’s community pharmacists are a critical part of health preparedness. They are accessible, trusted and present in every community, also when health systems are under pressure. Recent crises have shown that pharmacists can help maintain continuity of care, support public health interventions, communicate reliable information and relieve pressure on other parts of the healthcare system. However, this potential can only be fully used if pharmacies are formally integrated into emergency planning, properly resourced, and empowered.”

The PGEU Annual Conference brought together European and national policymakers, healthcare professionals, public health authorities and PGEU members to discuss the role of community pharmacists in emergencies, and how to ensure the preparedness of European healthcare systems. Speakers and panellists included representatives from the European Commission, DG HERA, DG ECHO, the European Parliament, Vaccines Europe, the Standing Committee of European Doctors, the Polish Government, the Military Institute of Medicine, and national pharmacy organisations.

To strengthen Europe’s health preparedness, PGEU calls for:

Formal inclusion of community pharmacists in emergency and crisis response strategies: ensure that pharmacies and pharmacists are integrated into emergency governance structures, preparedness plans, crisis response strategies and decision-making processes.

A proportionate and coordinated European framework for contingency stocks: optimize contingency stocks of essential medicines and medical devices through a rational, product-specific and coordinated approach that avoids duplication, waste and unnecessary pressure on the supply chain.

Expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice: enable pharmacists to support emergency response, vaccination, testing, shortage management, continuity of treatment and the safe provision of medical countermeasures when healthcare systems are under pressure.

Better use of aggregated pharmacy data: harness pharmacy data to inform preparedness, collaborative procurement and shortages management, while avoiding additional administrative burden and fully respecting data protection, confidentiality and privacy requirements.

Targeted action to improve the availability of medical countermeasures, diagnostics, therapeutics and personal protective equipment: strengthen supply chain resilience, improve communication on shortages and ensure that essential products are available when most needed during crises.

Integration of pharmacies into public risk communication strategies: leverage pharmacists as trusted healthcare professionals to provide science-based information, counter misinformation and support public adherence to health recommendations during emergencies.

Stronger interprofessional preparedness collaboration: reinforce structured cooperation between community pharmacists, doctors, hospital pharmacists, nurses, public health authorities and emergency services before, during and after crises.

Europe’s health preparedness depends on resilient, accessible and well-integrated primary care systems. Community pharmacies are ready to contribute to a stronger, more coordinated and patient-centred crisis response, but this requires formal recognition, sustainable resourcing and practical empowerment.

For more information, read the PGEU Position Paper on Health Preparedness.