Full speed ahead to give shape and substance to «service pharmacy»: from next Tuesday, June 18th, at Brescia pharmacies will be able to provide telemedicine services for heart patients (pressure holter, cardiac holter and Ecg) under the health system, with the white prescription.
As Clara Mottinelli, president of Federfarma Brescia, explains, in fact, by virtue of a regional resolution last May, «the services that pharmacies already provide for a fee, with ever-increasing numbers in recent years, they can now also be paid with exemption, starting with people with heart conditions with a prescription from their GP or paediatrician.” Heart patients, therefore, will be the first to be able to use telemedicine in the pharmacy for free. Subsequently, in the coming weeks, the service will also be extended to diabetics.
Controversy
“In this way – comments the president – the pharmacy services are strengthened even further”. Family doctors, however, raise doubts: «It’s an additional service and that’s fine – comments Angelo Rossi, provincial secretary of the Italian Federation of general practitioners -, but we can’t imagine reducing the waiting lists in this way. Also with a view to promoting the appropriateness of the process, it was necessary to involve the general practitioners, who follow and know the patient”.
Added to this is the disappointment of Francesco Falsetti, president of the Italian Doctors’ Union, who speaks of «yet another misstep by the Region: the necessary quality guarantees for patients are not provided. The correct methods of carrying out these tests are important for the subsequent correct reporting, which will not take place with the direct presence of the specialist doctor, but via telemedicine. Transmission for telemedicine reporting is fine, but in-person execution must be entrusted to qualified personnel.”
The reply
The president of the Order of Pharmacists of Brescia, Francesco Rastrelli, responds to the controversy by reiterating that this innovation aims «only to facilitate local healthcare. I see no reason for concern: we have always operated based on their specific skills as experts on the drug and providers of services synergistic to the provision of therapy. We will act appropriately in collaboration with those who take care of the patient, such as the family doctor and the specialist.”
The reports, which in the first phase will be delivered to patients, “in a few months will also be published on the electronic health record”. Controversy aside, starting yesterday «pharmacies – adds Mottinelli – can join the trial by selecting which service they want to provide: the services will be visible to citizens via the Farmacia Aperta app. To prepare, pharmacists will participate in a course, as well as a webinar organized by Federfarma Lombardia”. Each participating pharmacy will dedicate a suitable and equipped space to telemedicine. And citizens will be able to use a maximum of three ECGs, three blood pressure Holters and three cardiac Holters.
The drug therapy reconciliation service will also start in July: pharmacies will draw up the list of drugs administered to the patient “to provide the doctor with a clear picture and to help him in his prescribing activity”, specifies Mottinelli. For Rastrelli the service «enhances the knowledge and skills of the pharmacist, who thus provides a consultancy activity».
