The Spanish Society of Rural Pharmacy (SEFAR) and the Association of Rural Pharmacists of the Province of Alicante (AFARPA) have presented the I National Congress of Rural Pharmacy, which aims to give voice to these professionals and demand solutions that guarantee the profitability of their work, with a focus on generational turnover.
This Thursday, the secretary of AFARPA, Irene González; the president of AFARPA, Manuel Olivert; and the president of SEFAR, Jaime Espolita, explained that this Congress will be held on May 10 and 11 in Alicante, under the slogan ‘Rural Pharmacy: it is the town, it is life’.
During his speech, Espolita recalled that 20% of pharmacies in Spain are rural, around 4,000, and that the average annual turnover of a pharmacy is 1,100,000 euros, while in rural pharmacies it is less than a quarter of that.
He lamented that many rural pharmacies are disappearing and stressed that the lack of generational turnover is the main concern because young pharmacists do not have incentives to work in rural areas.
As possible solutions, the president of SEFAR pointed out the proposal they made to the Administration for a change in the remuneration model of rural pharmacies. «That is, that these pharmacies are not paid only for the number of people they attend to, but for the real work they do. We are talking about shifts, reviewing medicine cabinets, pharmaceutical or home care, pharmaceutical professional services, etc.,» he explained, regretting the negative response they received.
Faced with the rejection of this proposal, Espolita detailed that they have also proposed the option of establishing a compensation fund that covers at least the minimum expenses of these pharmacies, which represents 0.04% of the sector’s turnover. Thus, this first congress will take place to «give voice» to rural pharmacy.
«The objective of the Congress is to make known these small pharmacies that are throughout Spain and that are essential not only for the pharmaceutical model, but also for all our patients, who are the ones who will benefit from our existence day by day, because in many cases we are the only healthcare provider in the towns,» detailed Irene González.
She also pointed out that the viability of rural pharmacies is currently «compromised,» so through the ideas and projects developed within the framework of the Congress, the aim is to contribute to improving this viability.
For his part, Manuel Olivert emphasized that their mission is to ensure that the population in rural areas has the same rights as those living in cities. Therefore, he insisted on requesting resources, tools that help rural pharmacists be «just as useful or more» than those working in urban areas.
In this regard, he called for the possibility of providing more paid professional services, as their work also involves health education, detecting drug addictions, identifying possible cases of dementia, loneliness, or gender-based violence, among others.
«We could have worked elsewhere for more money, surely, but we don’t want that, we want to help people in rural areas,» he asserted.
With all this, the I National Congress of Rural Pharmacy, which already has between 100 and 150 registered participants, will include various topics in its program such as viability, management, artificial intelligence, or the role of the rural community pharmacist in the structure of Primary Care.
FUENTE
