On 28 February 2010, EPHA attended the 2011 European Pharmaceutical Students Association’s (EPSA) Annual Reception at the European Parliament, co-chaired by Elena Oana Antonescu MEP (Romania EPP) and Sanziana Marcu-Lapadat, EPSA’s Vice-President of External Affairs. The event, entitled ‘The pharmacist of tomorrow – Developing new roles to meet professional challenges’ provided an opportunity to learn about a dynamic profession currently in flux owing to new economic and demographic realities.
As EPSA President Anette Aaland Krokaas pointed out, the annual EPSA meeting is an opportunity for pharmacy students, professionals and policy-makers to connect and learn from each other.
In her opening, Elena Oana Antonescu MEP stressed the importance of networking and expressed her hope that EPSA will maintain a long-term link with the EU institutions. The European health workforce was dealing with rapid changes and in her home country – Romania – the effects of brain drain were strongly felt as thousands of doctors had left to seek out employment elsewhere. This implied that pharmacists were increasingly becoming the first port of call for patients.
EPSA representatives Jurij Obreza and Inkatuuli Heikkinen then highlighted the success of two EPSA initiatives, the ‘Individual Mobility Project’ and the ‘Training Project’, the former providing a chance for pharmacy students to gain professional and language skills by way of a traineeship abroad, the latter designed to foster an attitude of lifelong learning for safeguarding quality in patient care.
Mr. Juergen Tiedje, head of the Professional Qualifications Unit at DG MARKT then addressed the audience by summarising the revision process of the Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive (Directive 36). He outlined the three key themes the Commission sought to clarify through the public consulation and invited pharmacists to respond to the consultation by addressing the expanding scope of practice of pharmacists, the range of activities pharmacists (as one of the sectoral professions) enjoy automatic access to, as well as training content and the way that training hours are calculated. Ms Antonescu MEP pointed out that, in spite of automatic recognition of minimum training requirements, some Member States required longer training periods and more subjects, which hindered mobility. There were also problems due to competent authorities being slow and uncoordinated, and the difficulties related to opening up pharmacies abroad.
The ensuing panel discussion looked at the pharmacy profession from a variety of different angles, including contributions by John Chave of EPHA member the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU), Roberto Frontini of EPHA member the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), Kristina De Turck of the European Industrial Pharmacists Group (EIPG), Bart Rombaut of the European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy (EAFP) and EPSA’s VP of Education, Joao Duarte.
Notably, Mr. Frontini underlined the special competencies required to work effectively in today’s complex hospital environment, which required additional training of 3-4 years to understand the environment. He said that hospital pharmacists have to be extremely flexible and knowledgable in order to deal with e.g. acute situations and rare diseases, and to interact properly with doctors and patients. They also need to harmonise the quality of drugs and advise on proper use. Also, today pharmacists produce more compound drugs, i.e. they mix or adjust ingredients to customise a medication and meet individual patient needs.
Mr. Chave highlighted the ‘internet challenge’ as another challenage, given that more people acquired medicines online while dispensing machines are becoming a reality offline. More pharmacies are closing down and there a downgrading of education occured in countries like Sweden. However, he argued that the need for pharmacists is becoming more pronounced: to avoid adverse drug reactions, to deal with elderly patients suffering from chronic diseases, and to respond to the new role as ‘carers of the future’ as often pharmacists are simply more reachable than other health professionals. It is therefore important to seize new opportunities and remain optimistic. He stressed that it is also important to speak with a united voice as despite the different specialisations, pharmacists shared the same profession.
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For further information:
– European Pharmaceutical Students Association
– Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union
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