MAINTENANCE – 24 hour pharmacies want to practice on Sundays. This could threaten guard tours, according to a union.
They want to open on Sunday, without interruption. To achieve this, 13 pharmacies open 24 hours a day have come together in a collective. Their claim is simple: obtain an exemption to keep the curtain up, even during Sunday rest. This is currently not the case. In several departments, a prefectural decree prevents them from working on this specific day.
For the Union des Pharmacies 24/24, the situation is paradoxical. While pharmacies are authorized to remain open all night, they must close their doors during the day on Sunday. In theory, the Public Health Code leaves the possibility of a permanent opening. But this wish is not unanimous among pharmacists. Gilles Bonnefond, President of the Union of Community Pharmacists Unions (USPO), explains the reasons for this. Why actor.
Why are you opposed to this request?
Gilles Bonnefond : Across France, around 1,300 pharmacies are open every Sunday, every public holiday, every night. We pharmacists have an obligation to organize an on-call service for all patients. It is listed in the Public Health Code. Our role is to ensure that no pharmacist will be missed and that the patient will be able to access medication when he comes out of an emergency consultation. But these people are far from the concern of the custody. Our position is that if these pharmacies open in addition to pharmacies on duty, the latter will close. It will then be much more difficult to organize the guard tours if they decide not to reopen on Sunday.
However, they are required to open without interruption …
Gilles Bonnefond : This is one of their arguments. But in fact, in Grenoble, a pharmacist wanted to open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He only lasted 8 months and then the duty shifts had to be reorganized. Same in Avignon. Things are not that simple. These professionals cannot make such decisions on their own and let others organize themselves. They have no obligation to open. There is therefore a risk of being confronted with a problem: if a pharmacy does not find a student to work at night, as it is not registered on the call register, it will close. This disrupts the watch towers. If these pharmacists want to open more than the others, we suggest that they register on the on-call board, come to an agreement with colleagues in the sector, and keep their commitments.
Do you think that interest is more economic than health?
Gilles Bonnefond : Sure. What I have a problem with is not that they come to an agreement with the pharmacists in the area, but that they open because it is market day, then they close at 4 p.m. because there is no one … We can’t organize our guards that way. What interests us is making sure that no patient will have a problem if their child leaves the hospital at two in the morning and needs medication. They are interested in recovering additional activity. This is not how it works.
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