The organizational framework of community pharmacies in Europe

Background The role of the pharmacist has undergone profound changes over the recent years. In most European countries, the tendency seems to be that pharmacists are moving from being product-oriented to service-oriented. An interesting series of papers describing care related services of pharmacy in various countries has been published in 2006, but much has changed since then. This paper aims to provide an updated view on the overall health care sector in Europe, with a special focus on services in community pharmacy. Objective To list and compare health care and community pharmacy structure in Europe; and to discuss the facilitators and barriers that can be found in health care systems and may promote or hinder the implementation of new community pharmacy services. Setting European community pharmacy practice. Methods A cross-sectional study was undertaken where data were collected using an online survey sent to a purposive sample of representatives from 27 European countries. Main outcome measure variation in professional community pharmacy services across Europe. Results Data were obtained from 22 respondents in 19 countries (70.4 %). Health care is mainly provided by a form of public National Health Services in 17 of the 19 countries. Demographic criteria for founding new pharmacies were present in 17 countries. Medicines are exclusively available in pharmacies in approximately one third of the countries. Smoking cessation (93.8 %), drug waste management (81.3 %) and pharmaceutical care programmes for specific diseases (77.8 %) were reported as the most widely disseminated services in European pharmacies. Conclusions There are still major differences between community pharmacy practice in Europe. Differences are mostly due to the legal framework and remuneration issues, which impact on the range of services available from pharmacies to the community of each country.