21 SEPT – Dear Director,
the profession shares the vision of Minister Balduzzi, expressed in the published interview yesterday, of a pharmacist who is not a commercial operator, but a professional who works in the health service to protect the health of citizens. Indeed, already in 2006 the Federation had presented its proposals to increase the role and responsibility of the pharmacist at all levels: on the territory as in the hospital. Work that had a first outcome in Law 69 on the pharmacy of services.
Since then we have worked to create concrete experiences aimed at this goal, in many of which - such as the project on the clinical risk linked to the drug and that on the departmental pharmacist - we have been partners of the Ministry itself. Therefore, no one is more convinced than Italian pharmacists that we must focus on professionalism especially if, like Minister Balduzzi himself, we are convinced that the future is the pharmacy of services.
However, it cannot be ignored that, as far as the community pharmacy network is concerned, focusing on professionalism means above all foreseeing the return of all drugs available to the community pharmacist, including the innovative ones: this is the first step in avoiding any real or presumed commercial drift. Obviously with the corollary of a remuneration system that allows the economic sustainability of the service.
However, the Minister's words are auspicious, also in consideration of the fact that the decree establishing the ministerial table for the definition of the professional and scientific aspects of the Law on the pharmacy of services has been published, in which the Federation participates together with the representatives of the other health professions involved. The hope is that, with the help of the Minister, the roundtable will work quickly and concretely.
Andrea Mandelli
Fofi President
September 21, 2012 
