Catalog of demands

Pharmacists want to offer vaccinations and laboratory tests

In Austria, 7000 pharmacists work around the clock.

(Bild: Martin Hörmandinger)

The pharmacy as the foundation of the "health house": the services desired by the Chamber of Pharmacists in future include tests to support diagnostics, supervised self-medication for patients, vaccinations and the prescription of medicines.

Conflict with the Medical Association is inevitable. This is because the pharmacists are now also actively involved in the list of demands to the newly formed government. According to the President of the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists, Ulrike Mursch-Edlmayr, the main concerns are to be understood as proposals for improving and safeguarding the domestic healthcare system: Expand prevention, increase vaccination coverage, advance digitalization. This was presented at a press conference in Vienna.

There are seven measures in total (in abridged form, the entire catalog can be downloaded from the homepage of the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists):

• Clear political commitment to maintaining the pharmacy infrastructure (pharmacy reservation) and targeted expansion of the supply range
• Definition of a nationwide prevention strategy with clear responsibilities to ensure health promotion regardless of place of residence, age and income
• Inclusion of pharmacies in the public vaccination program
• Ensuring equal opportunities in access to digital healthcare solutions 
• Improve drug therapy in hospitals
• Introduction of a mandatory clinical-pharmaceutical "medication check" in hospitals
• Reducing overregulation and bureaucracy

It is also about fairer remuneration. "Many services provided by pharmacists are currently not paid at all. These include the personnel and time-intensive management of supply bottlenecks, night shifts and advice as part of patient management. The times in which pharmacy services can be compensated via the pharmaceutical margins are finally over," says Mursch-Edlmayr.

Strengthening pharmacies is a central key to improving people's health and relieving the burden on the medical system

Ulrike Mursch-Edlmayr 

Bild: Apothekerkammer/Christian Husar

In the future, she would like to see only one single point of contact for the implementation of comprehensive preventative measures by pharmacists, namely social insurance. This should include testing and screening services in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular and infectious diseases and tumor prevention, as well as the legal basis for carrying out vaccinations.

The President is harsh in her criticism of the 1450 health hotline. The system is not yet fully developed, she says, and people who do not even need it end up in medical care. This is where pharmacists could step in with the help of telemedicine.

Compensating for drug shortages
On the subject of drug shortages, Mursch-Edlmayr reports that the stocks in pharmacies are well stocked under the operators' own responsibility. Nevertheless, it is not possible to guarantee demand without gaps for many medicines. This is due to an underlying problem - even with production in Austria and the EU, competitive conditions apply on the global market. This can only be solved at a political level.