COVID-19 is becoming an enduring experience which is putting individuals, governments, and health care systems under unprecedented pressure. The last two years have been very challenging but the pharmacy green crosses always switched-on all-over Europe - even when everything else was switched off - have made all of us in the PGEU family feel more privileged and prouder than ever to work for the pharmacy profession.
The pandemic has created a unique window of opportunity for a transformative change in health policy. It has imposed many boundaries between people with social distancing, masks and plexiglass screens but it has also made fall many walls, among researchers, pharmaceutical companies and among health care professionals. This gives us the possibility of strengthening even further our collaboration both at policy and practical level with other health care professional organizations and the stakeholder in the pharmaceutical sector to provide high quality health care to patients. It has also reinforced the case for more investment in primary care and for an enhanced role of community pharmacists in the health care system.
A look forward
As community pharmacists in the front line continue working tirelessly in the fight against COVID-19 and are playing a vital role in COVID-19 vaccination and testing, at PGEU we will continue doing everything we can to provide them tangible support by being their ambassadors in Brussels and contributing to define a regulatory framework that maximizes their knowledge and experience and help them in the pharmacy daily practice.
Our top priority in 2022 will be the revision of the European pharmaceutical legislation that the European Commission will launch at the end of the year. We will work to ensure that the revision will put the needs of patients at the center, will improve access and availability of medicines especially by addressing shortages and that it will strengthen health systems financial sustainability.
Another important priority with be the creation of the European Health Data Space which give us the opportunity to shape digital transformation in a way that truly supports pharmacists, that promotes interprofessional collaboration, that ensures data protection but also guarantees transparency and facilitates the collection of data to improve regulatory decisions and advances medical progress.
We will also work with the other stakeholders in the supply chain to reduce the negative impact of pharmaceuticals on the environment and we will continue our fight against antimicrobial resistance.
Lastly, we look forward to continuing in our role as co-chair of the EU coalition on vaccination and our contribution to the work of the European Medicines Agency in the framework of the EMA health care professionals working party.
As community pharmacists in the front line continue working tirelessly in the fight against COVID-19 and are playing a vital role in COVID-19 vaccination and testing, at PGEU we will continue doing everything we can to provide them tangible support by being their ambassadors in Brussels and contributing to define a regulatory framework that maximizes their knowledge and experience and help them in the pharmacy daily practice.”
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Community pharmacists exemplar role as primary care providers in the COVID-19 pandemic