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Anastasia Balezdrova

Greek pharmacists are threatening with unprecedented and quite extreme strikes following the adoption of the bill on the full liberalization of their profession. The pharmacists’ association in Athens will decide at a general meeting next Monday if the Greek capital will remain even without pharmacies on duty from 6 March on. If the proposal finds the necessary support, only one pharmacy will serve Athens. Another one will serve the residents of Piraeus.

GRReporter contacted the Secretary of the Pan-Hellenic Pharmacists Association Dimitris Karageorgiou to explain the reasons why they are going to put the citizens to such tests.

Pharmacists are totally against the liberalization of opening hours and are warning that there may be no pharmacies open on weekends and during holidays. According to Dimitris Karageorgiou, with the new law that was passed last night, the government actually aims at "supporting pharmacies in malls. But if the minister wants all pharmacies to be open in order to conceal that the pharmacies in the malls are open, let them recruit pharmacists for several shifts, rather than ordinary employees, because turnover has fallen."

What exactly are pharmacists’ arguments against the decision for the liberalization of opening hours?

"There are three things that apply not only to our colleagues in Europe but worldwide. First, a pharmacist, whether the pharmacy owner or a employee, cannot work more than 48 hours per week, including day and night hours, for safety reasons. This is determined by the European Directive 7/2011 and by numerous decisions of the European Court. Second, it is not possible for a pharmacy to operate in the absence of an authorized pharmacist. Third, the local unions of pharmacists define the responsibility for day and night duties at the pharmacy and their opening hours. Regional governments simply validate their decisions. This is the European practice."

Recently, the technocratic government of Mario Monti in Italy has fully liberalized the profession of pharmacists. Their counterparts in Greece do not see any similarities between the two countries and insist that the existing pharmacies are plenty. "How much more should be the profession liberalized? In Italy, where the population is 55 million people, there are only 17,000 pharmacies. I.e. each of them corresponds to 4-5000 people. In Greece, where the population is 11 million people along with immigrants, there are 12,000 pharmacies. How much more pharmacies can be open? After the liberalization of the profession in Italy, each pharmacy will correspond to 3500 inhabitants. Here, a pharmacy corresponds to 850 inhabitants. Reasons such as maintaining public health and protection from unlawful competition require states to establish canons of the profession of pharmacist. This is stipulated in Directive 123, which describes the professions to be liberalized and pharmacies do not appear there. For the same reason, pharmacies are not included in the memorandum and the law of the Ministry of Finance." According to Dimitris Karageorgiou, just the opposite is happening in Greece. The aim is not the opening of new pharmacies but the closure of many operating pharmacies, as they combined with the physicians increase health care costs "

One of the serious reasons for the sharp pharmacists’ response to the new law is the reduction of the profit of pharmacies guaranteed by the state to 15%. The opinion of the pharmacists’ association is that if "the profit is not guaranteed and the prices of medicines are not stable, people and their health are at threat. Then, every pharmacist will sell any medicine at whatever prices he decides, with no control at all. They will sell the drugs that bring the largest profit rather than those that are most useful for the people."

Pharmacists strongly oppose the sale of medicines in supermarkets. According to them, the pharmacies, which are open in supermarkets across Europe, have been established based on specifications that are particularly expensive to the Greek owners of supermarkets. Therefore, they themselves are against them too. "People who support the idea of opening such pharmacies must take into account many factors, and ultimately, who is the pharmacist who will allow his boss or the supervisor of the supermarket, who will not be a pharmacist, to tell him exactly what drugs to sell to meet his interests?"

On the other hand, pharmacists’ position for generic drugs is not as strong as that of doctors. They, however, stress that doctors should have the right to choose the drugs they prescribe. But the most important thing in their opinion is the safety of the drug. "The problem is that the drug control agency is not working as it should. If there were no problems, no mass transfer of employees to it would be provided by law." At the same time, the widespread use of generic drugs does not allow sufficient control for their safety. That is why an initiative has started last year for the better quality and greater safety of generic drugs. "World Health Organisation has also taken measures because the victims in the name of savings in the last 3-4 years have caused many medical illnesses precisely due to the quality of drugs prescribed."

In conclusion, the secretary of the Pan-Hellenic Pharmacists Association wished "let the logic prevail and the law be amended. Otherwise, things are really bad and unfortunately, people will not have drugs. If it is applied in this form, I would only say that you should not be surprised by anyone and anything."