Family doctors don't like substitutability in pharmacies. This was already known but now there is also an online survey - conducted in recent weeks by Fimmg Veneto - to confirm it: according to the 84% of generalists it is incorrect for the pharmacist to dispense an equivalent from time to time instead of the prescribed medicine based on stock availability. For the MMG's 65%, then, the no to substitutability can be explained by the different efficacy and tolerability of the generic compared to the specialty brand, while for the 60% some "off patent" brands are more reliable than others. On the basis of these numbers, Fimmg Veneto has launched an appeal to all family doctors: "We must recover that prescriptive power that has been eroded by national legislation over the years," said the union's regional secretary, Lorenzo Adami, at the press conference organized to present the research "legislation which today, also thanks to the complacency of Minister Fazio, has marginalized the MMG and given the pharmacist supplementary and new powers compared to the past". Proclamations from "GP pride" which have also dragged the new services in the pharmacy, recently cleared through customs by the State-Regions Conference, into the dock. «The health risks caused by a dangerous replacement of generic drugs» Adami thundered «add to the ease with which pharmacists try to expand to new roles of medical competence, with the consequent danger of a health deregulation in the area».
DoctorNews – December 1, 2010
Fazio, NHS "gatekeeper" pharmacies
The health system will change its skin to withstand the impact of the unstoppable advance of old age and family doctors and pharmacies will be strategic for overcoming the challenge in the coming years in their new guise: "that of 'gatekeepers', doors of entry to the National Health Service". This is the picture outlined in Milan by the Minister of Health, Ferruccio Fazio. Italian healthcare? "A runaway train". This is how the minister defined it during a meeting organized by the Catholic University for the 10th anniversary of the university's Center for Research and Studies in Health Management (Cerismas). "The NHS in our country - he explains - will undergo very strong changes in the coming years. Not only are today's hospitals not like those of 20 years ago, but the whole system has changed and is still nothing compared to what will change within 2050. Healthcare requires maintenance. Even the best hospitals and the best Local Health Authorities cannot rest on their laurels. Citizens who have a health problem will not go to the emergency room or hospital, but to the family doctor, as well as to pharmacies that today, as a result of the measures that have affected them, they will become more and more health centers where you can collect reports, book exams and so on".
Pharmakronos – December 1, 2010
