Unclog doctors’ waiting rooms while fighting angina. This is the objective of the measure which should be announced this Monday, March 25, on the occasion of the interministerial health committee. According to The Parisian, access to screening tests carried out by pharmacists should be facilitated, since they will be reimbursed from 1 January.
Angina is a common disease. But it is often treated with antibiotics, counterproductive if its origin is viral. Last November, the World Health Organization still alerted to the increase in consumption of its drugs, particularly in France. However, angina corresponds to 10% of prescriptions, or 9 million cases each year. However, 80% of them are of viral origin.
More responsibilities for pharmacists
These rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) allow pharmacy professionals to detect the disease in a patient, but also to determine its viral or bacterial nature. A simple throat examination cannot make this distinction. A sample is taken from the tonsils with a cotton swab. Then, bringing it into contact with a reagent reveals the origin of the angina in less than ten minutes.
For the moment, this screening costs around ten euros. They are made available free of charge to general practitioners, pediatricians and ENT doctors. However, only 40% of general practitioners ordered them in 2017, according to figures from the Parisian. Just over 10% of pharmacists have received training to practice it. Martiel Fraysse, president of the Ile-de-France regional council of the order of pharmacists, thus salutes in the daily newspaper a ” very good idea “. “Out of the 4200 pharmacists, nearly 600 of us have received this training and are authorized to perform these tests”, he explains.
This new announcement is part of the many measures of the health bill. Since March 21, pharmacists have also been authorized to dispense medicines without a prescription, normally subject to a medical prescription, for mild pathologies such as angina. At the same time, the government allowed them to prescribe certain vaccines directly, in order to improve vaccination coverage. That of France is one of the lowest in Europe.
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- Angina: what is the best treatment?
- The French in favor of vaccination by pharmacists
