Many pharmacists in Europe are jealous of the success of pharmacy in the UK, suggests Noel Wicks

A few weeks ago. I had the good fortune to attend th INFARMA congress and exhibition, held in Barcelona. This was a amazing event with a huge number of exhibitors and thousands of community pharmacists and their staff attending from all over Spain.

The place was packed and the atmosphere electric. There was a genuine buzz inside the exhibition hall and the formal conference sessions. It was very exciting to be a part of it, not just as a delegate, but also as a speaker.

As you may know, I sit on the European Pharmacists Forum (EPF) along with other colleagues from the UK, such as Mike Smith, Kirit Patel and Nick Kaye. The forum provides an opportunity for pharmacists from 10 different European countries to come together to share practice, discuss common issues and formulate strategy. It was with some of these EPF colleagues that I attended the event as a speaker, helping to bring together flavours of community pharmacy from across Europe. I was there representing Scotland, and we had colleagues from countries such as Italy, France and Germany also providing delegates with key facts about pharmacy in their country.

There are many themes occurring consistently across Europe, such as reduction in government funding, development of new services, growth in internet pharmacy and control of entry regulations. However, what quickly becomes apparent when looking at pharmacy across Europe is just how much progress we in the UK have made compared to elsewhere. This is definitley the case around nationally commissioned and funded services.

In countries where pharmacists lack clinical recognition, and innovation seems to start and end with short-term pilots, the UK situation seems like nirvana. So, for me there was a bit of a reminder in there about appreciating what we have, because there may be someone, somewhere, worse off than ourselves.

Indeed, other European countries have challenges that might seem unimaginable here: governments taking several months to reimburse pharmacies, being one of them. When you’ve no idea when, or even if, you’re going to be paid for something, it takes a lot of commitment to keep on doing it. In meeting some of the delegates after the event, it was clear that many are desperate to have the opportunities that pharmacy affords us in the UK. If anything, the knowledge that this was happening elsewhere in Europe is making them even more committed to driving change in their own countries. 

Of course, the UK doesn’t have the monopoly on good ideas and there are some interesting innovations happening abroad. In fact, the EPF highlighted some of these in the recent White Paper ‘The role of pharmacy in supporting the public’s health’. These include examples such as the French anticoagulant service, HIV testing in pharmacies in Spain and vascular age checks in Switzerland.

While it’s important to appreciate what we’ve got here on our small island, I’d say that we certainly can’t afford to be complacent.

Noel Wicks is an independent pharmacist.