CREMONA – The countdown has started for exams in pharmacies. From Tuesday it will be possible to use telemedicine services affiliated with the Region also in local pharmacies. Which means services accessible to all, both in economic terms and in terms of timing. Simply with recipe and self-declaration. There are currently three exams available: Pressure Holter, cardiac Holter and electrocardiogram. The aim is to reduce the biblical waiting times of clinics and hospitals, but also to encourage patients suffering from serious chronic ailments to take care of their health in a convenient and affordable way.
«To tell the truth – he explains Rosanna Gallipresident of Federfarma – we have been providing these services to patients for some time; Last year, Lombardy pharmacies carried out more than 110,000 telecardiology services, all for a fee. The great news is that it can now be done in agreement, with reimbursement from the Region; not everyone can afford the costs of a private service”. But it is also about expanding and enhancing the skills of pharmacies. «Pharmacies – continues Galli – have a social role as well as medical assistance: they are a point of reference and proximity, especially in small towns. Furthermore, the figure of the pharmacist works in close contact with general practitioners, and the right synergy is needed.”
We can feel the hand of the pandemic. The tests in the pharmacy are a déjà-vu: in the period of greatest resurgence of Covid, in fact, several pharmacies took action to carry out swabs, serological tests, vaccines. Precisely during the lockdown, therefore, pharmacies revealed aspects of their potential that had not previously been taken into consideration. «Trust in us certainly also depends on the Covid period – underlines Galli –. Our IT structure reports everything. The system we use is strong and must be exploited; before Covid, perhaps, the right value had not been given to this potential. Thanks to our IT systems, nothing escapes us.”
According to Galli, the news doesn’t end here. «To begin with, some rules still need to be agreed upon: we need to understand which patients are eligible, because for now we have limited ourselves to rushing towards cases of heart disease and diabetes. Furthermore, there is a program on the agenda that will be released very soon: therapeutic reconciliation. It involves monitoring patients to see if they take the therapy. The pharmacy cannot have the sole function of administering drugs; it is important to make sure that these drugs – especially when talking about complex therapies, such as those for heart patients – are taken regularly, without interruptions. Often the patient is tempted to stop a treatment simply because she starts to feel better, but by doing so she makes the therapy ineffective. Perhaps already at the end of this month we will also have this service.”
