Community pharmacists will be able to dispense without a prescription (“prescribe”) certain drugs which are normally only prescribed by doctors. This is the meaning of the amendment voted by the National Assembly which allows experimentation limited to a few regions.
Contrary to what was announced on Saturday, pharmacists will be able to “prescribe” (deliver without medical prescription) certain drugs according to AFP. The National Assembly on Friday authorized, on an experimental basis, pharmacists to dispense drugs requiring a compulsory medical prescription (and not only OTC drugs), as part of the social security financing bill for 2019.
Protocols between doctors and pharmacists
According to MP Delphine Bagarry (LREM), behind the amendment, it is “to allow the French to more easily access the care they need by relying on the skills of each”. “It is a question of entrusting pharmacists, within the framework of protocols concluded between doctors and pharmacists, with the delivery of certain medicines with compulsory medical prescription for certain pathologies”, she explained.
“This project is reasonable because it plans to do it initially in the field of experimentation. It is reasoned because it is based both on successful experiences with our neighbours, particularly in Switzerland” , she added.
“Contrary to what has been said, we are not transforming the pharmacist into a doctor but we are allowing, in the interest of patients, to facilitate the delivery of certain drugs. If we want to free up medical time, facilitate access to care, you have to be able to rely on the competence of all the caregivers”, she said.
Respect for trades
Several right-wing and left-wing deputies wondered about “respect for trades”. But the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn affirmed that the government was “very respectful of the professions”. “But today, we know that in some well-standardized situations and in areas where it is difficult to have an emergency doctor’s appointment, there may be, within the framework of a well-framed experiment, a form of cooperation that is the subject of a good framework,” she said.
“Today, a young girl who has a urinary tract infection will wait two to three days in certain towns in France for an appointment, and she will suffer excruciatingly, when it could have been treated with an antibiotic tablet. is not changing jobs, we are making the daily life of our fellow citizens easier,” she concluded.
The project would have been limited for the first three years to two regions but it seems difficult to generalize this process, certainly based on cooperation between doctors and pharmacists, without a computerized and shared personal medical file allowing the doctor to control what the patient takes. . But we are not there yet.
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