300,000 Belgians, often elderly or chronically ill, take at least 5 different medicines every day. © BelgaImage
The pharmacist is not a seller of boxes or a drug dealer. Not only is the profession now claiming it loud and clear but, in addition, it is receiving more and more delicate and essential missions for the health of the population. The latest is for patients taking five or more different medications per day. Pharmacists can help them reduce their consumption or replace certain products. Overall, Belgians consume a lot (too much) of medicines, but 300,000 people, often elderly or chronically ill, take more than half a dozen daily. “Today, the pharmacist is the only one to have an overview of all prescribed and non-prescribed drugs. A Dafalgan, a cough syrup, an herb have implications for prescription drugs. The pharmacist has had access to the shared pharmaceutical file since 2015. He has the obligation to encode everything the patient takes and everything that could interact, including plant capsules. The big advantage of the reference pharmacist is that he has access to everything that has been taken at home but also elsewhere.”, emphasizes Nicolas Echement, French-speaking general secretary of the Association of Belgian pharmacists.
This is not the first time that Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) has chosen to bet on pharmacists. “Being the pharmaceutical expert par excellence, the pharmacist can help put the drugs back in order. It is important for the health of patients to ensure that these are used rationally and that they continue to have the desired effect. Patients already often turn to their pharmacist for advice. We must take advantage of this bond of trust between the patient and the pharmacist, but also between the latter and the attending physician, so that the consumption of drugs is better targeted.“Minister Frank Vandenbroucke provides 2.91 million euros to remunerate pharmacists for this new service. They will receive 95 euros per action plan implemented. Patients, for their part, will have nothing to pay.
In addition to the vaccination points launched during the health crisis and aid in the context of the disease of asthma launched in 2015, since February, pharmacists have been offering a withdrawal service for benzodiazepines consumed as sleeping pills or anxiolytics. This is a pilot project scheduled for one year. The pharmacist must help the person to get rid of his addiction. “The pharmacist is a local health coach. 85% of patients are loyal to their pharmacist. There is a bond of great trust. The pharmacist is there to advise and listen. The profession is destined to evolve towards ever greater proximity and multidisciplinarity”, concludes Nicolas Echement.
Overconsumption
12% of the Belgian population had used at least one tablet prescribed in the class of sedatives, hypnotics and anxiolytics. Treatment with this drug is recommended for a maximum of two to four weeks. Longer use has a myriad of negative health effects such as physical and psychological dependence and withdrawal symptoms. Nevertheless, one in three users in our country are still taking these drugs after eight years.
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Computer hiccups
“The patient has rights. He is free to see several doctors and does not always agree to his personal data circulating. The pharmacist must inform his client that, as referent, he has access to all his data. If the patient accepts, no problem”, points out the Absym, the union of doctors. Another gray area according to Absym: how will information be shared between pharmacists and doctors when apparently the software of each other is not compatible. It wouldn’t work. Mail and telephone as the only means of communication could make the new action plan cumbersome.
Remedies and poisons
Traces of pharmaceutical preparations go back 40,000 years. The origin of the word “pharmacy” comes from the Greek “pharmakon”, which means both remedy and poison. If seeking to relieve or heal wounds was born at the foundation of humanity, it was between magic and the stammering of science that appeared, under the Greco-Roman era, what could be described as the one of the first embryos in the pharmaceutical industry. Yesterday, she was at the conflicting crossroads of botany, magic, religions and charlatanism. Today, it is at the crossroads of biology, chemistry, medicine, marketing and a very fashionable religion, that of the cult of performance and happiness.
