ASL Potenza: the service pharmacy at the starting line

Part on the provincial territory of Local Health Authority of Potenza the testing of new services in the community pharmacy, the so-called ‘service pharmacy’. This was established by the Resolution signed by the General Director of the ASP Basilicata Antonello Maraldo following the Acknowledgment of the Protocol and Technical Specifications included in a regional determination dating back to last November.

In collaboration with the Territorial Pharmacy of the ASP, new services provided by pharmacies within the National Health Service are therefore identified. These are services with great socio-health value which will be carried out at participating pharmacies and which will not only make it possible to reduce waiting lists in some sectors, but also to reach out to the citizen user who will thus be able to undergo it completely free of charge. to certain services at trusted pharmacies, which will then be reimbursed by the Regional Health Service for the amount not requested from the citizen.

The trial, scheduled for a maximum period of six months, will last until the budget is exhausted and, only with a positive outcome, will the competent Ministry be able to proceed with the disbursement of further funds and confirmation of the service.

The services that can be provided at the pharmacies will be provided in Telemedicine and concern cardiac and blood pressure holters, electrocardiograms and simple spirometry which will be reported electronically thanks to the connection with the specialist centres. It should be noted that in the experimental phase only users who are exempt from tickets for pathologies related to the services to be performed will be able to access the service and who, as provided for by the Protocol and the Technical Regulations included in Regional Resolution 945/2020, must have a doctor’s referral also dematerialized.

To access the provision of services, pharmacists will use the ‘DottorFarma’ platform.

Thanks to the widespread presence of pharmacies, it will be possible to obtain healthcare that is increasingly closer to the citizen by providing basic necessities, especially in rural and more internal areas, serving in particular the group of users over sixty-five and the most fragile subjects or those who have difficulty reaching the centres. in which healthcare facilities operate. A service that becomes even more efficient and effective and that expands the concept of local healthcare.

For the Director of Territorial Pharmaceuticals of Asp Basilicata Giorgio Lardino, “with this resolution an important step forward is taken even if the difficulties in recent months have not been lacking and have been mainly linked to bureaucratic issues. The legislation stipulates that each participating pharmacy must use different premises than those in which the drugs are distributed, so in some cases, before adhering to the project, some situations had to be evaluated. At present there are over seventy pharmacies that have joined in the provincial territory”.

For the President of Federfarma Potenza, Carlo Claps, “we are in the home stretch on an important issue which sees Basilicata put itself in line with other regions where experimentation has already started for some time”. The concept of ‘territorial medicine’ is developed in favor of vulnerable groups who “in the near future – adds Claps – “will not necessarily have to go to ASP facilities to make or revoke the choice of a general practitioner and will also be able to undergo analyzes routine blood tests, continuing to reduce waiting lists and streamlining the regional health service”.

The president of the Provincial Order of Pharmacists of Potenza Magda Cornacchione welcomes the start of the trial which “finally restores the right healthcare role to pharmacists” but hopes that “alongside those who have an exemption due to a pathology, it will be possible to foresee the opening, in these six months, also to users exempt due to income and to all those over 65 regardless of their income situation.”

Upon signing the ASP resolution, General Director Maraldo declared that “the service pharmacy, although launched on an experimental basis in line with the other regions, implements that idea of ​​proximity medicine referred to by Ministerial Decree 77 and which constitutes the future of the NHS, particularly in a pure territorial company like Asp. A broader plan is being implemented which includes the Territorial Operations Centers to be activated by the end of June, the Community Homes and the Community Hospitals which will be supported by the definitive entry into force of telemedicine and the Family Nurses”. For Maraldo “this is the challenge of the next few years in which Asp will play a prominent role and for which it will certainly have to be ready”.