Minus 15% on group A drugs only in October. This figure is enough to understand the emergency affecting Tuscan pharmacies. Or just go to Grosseto. Since May (the month of the ominous resolution with which the Department of Health ordered the consumption of generics purchased centrally by the Estavs, the administrative bodies of a vast area, to be increased by at least 15%), the ASL has brought the number of distribution points to four on the territory. From which it dispenses not Pht or first cycle specialties, but class A medicines, those that in the rest of Italy pharmacies buy from the wholesaler and sell on a red prescription. «Each ASL has set up its own system» explains the president of Federfarma Grosseto, Goffredo Bartolozzi Bernardini «that's how they do it here, in Prato and Pistoia the home delivery. And pharmacies wither: less 15% in October, with peaks of 18% ». In reality, the Region would not want to cut out the principals: as stated by the Tuscan Finance Act for 2011, the project would be to entrust the owners with the dispensing of the drugs purchased by the Estavs in exchange for a dpc-style fee, a total per piece, to be fixed through a concerted agreement. It would be remuneration reform (in Tuscany) without the remuneration reform (agreed at national level within the framework of the Convention). Hence Federfarma Toscana's no (on the basis of the decisions taken by last Sunday's shareholders' meeting, see Tuesday's Pharmacist33) with the support of the union's national leaders. But it's a no that won't last long: «We'll hold out for a while» says Bartolozzi «but unless 30% closes. I have urban and rural pharmacies that are already struggling to get by today, I have to think about them ». Which means: if the renewal of the national Convention or the reform of remuneration is not launched quickly, the pharmacies will have to give way. It then becomes evident that the fate of the Convention is decided in Tuscany, because what the Region does the next day is repeated by Emilia, Umbria and Marche. If an agreement like the one the councilor wants is concluded, there would no longer be a regional government willing to discuss national conventions.
November 21, 2011 – Pharmacist33
