We have been extremely busy while in Cyprus. They have everything planned out in advance for us; we even have a coach tour bus that we drive around everywhere as a group. I would guess there are about 60 people on the trip from the various cities where students are doing their pharmacy internships.
Yesterday while driving to visit the capital city of Nicosia I had the opportunity to talk with one of the French students, Reda, about the state of pharmacy in France. The conversation began because he asked me what it was like have pharmacies inside of grocery stores and supermarkets. Currently in France they do not have such a set-up. Pharmacies are all independently owned, there are no chain drug stores. Additionally, they are stand-alone buildings not within other stores. At first I remarked that it was completely normal to walk into a Walmart, Target, or grocery store and do your other shopping then pick up some over-the-counter products and even your prescriptions. However, once I listened to Reda's description of how he thought the quality of care was better with pharmacies operated independently by pharmacists I had a different viewpoint. For instance, he discussed how he thinks having medications such as aspirin sitting in an aisle next to where the bananas are found may downplay the seriousness of taking medications properly. For instance, you would not hesitate to give bananas to an infant, so why not give them a dose of aspirin for a fever as well (for non-pharmacy people this is dangerous due to Reye's Syndrome which can cause swelling in the liver and brain)? He also suggested that with this model of easily available over-the-counter products people are probably less likely to ask the pharmacist any questions they may have as they are not as accessible as they would be if the pharmacy was concentrated in a building by itself.
Right now it is the bigger companies who are pushing for chain pharmacies and their implementation into grocery stores and supermarkets. He said that pharmacists and also the Ministry of Health are fighting against this because they are worried about declining patient care with such a model. It made me curious what it would be like in the United States if we had the same model as France. Yes, it may be a tad bit more inconvenient to have to visit both the pharmacy AND the grocery store...but would we receive better health outcomes? Would you be more likely to ask your pharmacist a question about your blood pressure medication if you weren't worried about shopping for everything on your grocery list and making sure all your coupons are organized? What about if instead of going to CVS, Rite Aid, or Walgreen's the majority of American's shopped at Nolt's Pharmacy, Smith's Pharmacy, or Landis' Pharmacy? Would this be better for our profession and our patient's health? Now I know that obviously we still do have some independent drug stores available, but with the cost of medications and acceptance of health insurance it is becoming more difficult to keep these businesses profitable. Perhaps this idea of moving away from the independently owned personal patient-pharmacist relationship is part of what has caused the health outcomes of America to be lower than other countries who spend less on healthcare than our own nation. How much of our health should we sacrifice for convenience?
Yesterday while driving to visit the capital city of Nicosia I had the opportunity to talk with one of the French students, Reda, about the state of pharmacy in France. The conversation began because he asked me what it was like have pharmacies inside of grocery stores and supermarkets. Currently in France they do not have such a set-up. Pharmacies are all independently owned, there are no chain drug stores. Additionally, they are stand-alone buildings not within other stores. At first I remarked that it was completely normal to walk into a Walmart, Target, or grocery store and do your other shopping then pick up some over-the-counter products and even your prescriptions. However, once I listened to Reda's description of how he thought the quality of care was better with pharmacies operated independently by pharmacists I had a different viewpoint. For instance, he discussed how he thinks having medications such as aspirin sitting in an aisle next to where the bananas are found may downplay the seriousness of taking medications properly. For instance, you would not hesitate to give bananas to an infant, so why not give them a dose of aspirin for a fever as well (for non-pharmacy people this is dangerous due to Reye's Syndrome which can cause swelling in the liver and brain)? He also suggested that with this model of easily available over-the-counter products people are probably less likely to ask the pharmacist any questions they may have as they are not as accessible as they would be if the pharmacy was concentrated in a building by itself.
Right now it is the bigger companies who are pushing for chain pharmacies and their implementation into grocery stores and supermarkets. He said that pharmacists and also the Ministry of Health are fighting against this because they are worried about declining patient care with such a model. It made me curious what it would be like in the United States if we had the same model as France. Yes, it may be a tad bit more inconvenient to have to visit both the pharmacy AND the grocery store...but would we receive better health outcomes? Would you be more likely to ask your pharmacist a question about your blood pressure medication if you weren't worried about shopping for everything on your grocery list and making sure all your coupons are organized? What about if instead of going to CVS, Rite Aid, or Walgreen's the majority of American's shopped at Nolt's Pharmacy, Smith's Pharmacy, or Landis' Pharmacy? Would this be better for our profession and our patient's health? Now I know that obviously we still do have some independent drug stores available, but with the cost of medications and acceptance of health insurance it is becoming more difficult to keep these businesses profitable. Perhaps this idea of moving away from the independently owned personal patient-pharmacist relationship is part of what has caused the health outcomes of America to be lower than other countries who spend less on healthcare than our own nation. How much of our health should we sacrifice for convenience?