Crotone – Increasingly closer and attentive to patients’ needs, increasingly innovative and cutting-edge, pharmacies are now a point of reference for citizens. Health allies for users, especially in rural areas and inland areas, where health services are still poorly accessible, pharmacists have renewed their role by getting involved and above all by demonstrating professionalism, competence and dynamism. A transformation that began shortly before COVID and which proved successful in the post-pandemic period. In Crotone and its province, in particular, pharmacists have managed to create a network of efficient and innovative services. We talked about it with Oreste Gualtieri, vice president of Federfarma Crotone.
“Here – he explained – the pharmacies have come together for a single objective: to bring patients who need care and services closer as soon as possible”. A first important milestone was achieved with the reductions in waiting lists in the first half of 2024: “An important objective – explains Gualtieri – to improve access to pharmaceutical services. Involving pharmacists and implementing Pharmacy Services can certainly help achieve this goal, providing faster and more personalized assistance to patients. Collaboration between colleagues can help develop effective strategies to optimize the services offered and reduce waiting times. After the complaint launched by some associations of citizens of the Crotone area, “Public healthcare inaccessible”, in October 2023, (by Codici Calabria, Arci Crotone Aps, Thalassemia Association, Living Smiling, Maslow Association, Autism Families Movement and others…) , in the first half of 2024, the situation seems to have improved”.
The work being carried out in the pharmacies in the province of Crotone is therefore impeccable. “Considering the new needs of citizens – adds the vice president – it is necessary to review the system model.
This means redesigning the healthcare of the future. We need to work from a sustainability perspective and this is why it is important to start from a new model of territorial reorganizationdesigned by the Budget Law which provides for “wider patient access to medicines, improving compliance and therapeutic adherence”, with positive repercussions on the quality of life and on reducing the incidence of pathologies with a high social and economic impact”.
The pharmacist establishes himself as a key access point to the National Health Service and as a mediator to facilitate the connection between patients and doctors. “This – he specifies – is particularly advantageous for those who live in small towns or rural areas far from hospitals, here pharmacies become an indispensable point of reference and significantly improve the quality of life of residents”.
In short, the role of the pharmacist has definitely changed. No longer just a white coat behind a counter but professionals able to provide advice helping citizens to better manage their health conditions and understand the correct use of medicines. And pharmacies offer a wide range of additional services that help monitor health and prevent any pathologies. The collaboration with the national health system, which allows us to coordinate the follow-up of patients, guaranteeing continuity of care and improving therapeutic outcomes, and the commitment to disseminating health education with ad hoc campaigns dedicated to correct lifestyles, bring citizens even more and represent, especially in an area like ours, an added value that makes up for the shortcomings of a system in trouble.
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