Today PGEU organises a roundtable[1] to present the numerous and diverse pharmacy services provided in Europe including a wide array of pharmacy interventions on COVID-19.

The event brings together Members of the European Parliament, senior officials from the European Commission, representatives of patients and other health care professional organisations, the OECD, national health authorities and PGEU members to discuss the role of community pharmacists in health promotion and prevention and their contribution to the health of people and to the resilience and sustainability of healthcare systems.

PGEU President Duarte Santos stated: “National experiences show that community pharmacists can provide high-quality, efficient and patient centred health care. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic undeniably demonstrated community pharmacy capacity to quickly adapt to difficult situations and to provide an effective response in the emergency.

The 400.000 European community pharmacists are eager to use their competencies and experience to reinforce the delivery of core pharmacy services and to go further, assuming new responsibilities through several advanced pharmaceutical services that have proven to be beneficial for patients’ quality of life, public health, and health systems’ sustainability.

We call on health policy makers to exploit the full potential of the network of 160.000 community pharmacies operating in Europe and maximise the benefits of the community pharmacist’s intervention through expanding pharmacy services, improving patients’ safety, therapeutic adherence, and health outcomes.

This can be achieved by granting community pharmacists access to relevant patients’ health information while respecting data protection, allowing them to provide the full range of medicines and medical devices patients request, supporting community pharmacists in offering health screening, medicines management and health promotion programmes and adequately remunerating them for the services they provide.”

[1] https://www.pgeu.eu/publications/invitation-pgeu-roundtable-on-pharmacy-services/