An amendment authorizes doctors to administer vaccines in pharmacies open to the public, in suitable spaces and with the help of nurses or health assistants. Satisfaction from sector organizations: "Ever closer to the people"
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Italy could soon become the tenth European country to allow vaccines to be administered in pharmacies. An amendment to the new vaccine bill, approved on July 6 by the Senate, in fact, it authorizes doctors to administer vaccines in pharmacies open to the public, in suitable spaces and possibly making use of nurses or health assistants. The methods of this administration will be established by decree of the Ministry of Health, without "new or greater burdens for public finance". Pharmacies, for their part, will have to issue the patient with a free certificate of vaccination and send a copy to the ASL "in order to ensure that the vaccination booklet is updated".
Next Tuesday the decree should go to the vote in the Palazzo Madama hall, then return to the Chamber for the third reading, but the green light from Hygiene and Health has triggered the first comments. «The possibility of administering vaccines in pharmacies is excellent news and people who live in isolated or disadvantaged areas will especially benefit from it» Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin told Ansa. «Obviously» he continued «the amendment refers to a ministerial decree which will have to establish the modalities with which to regulate the service, which will in any case be free for users». Satisfaction also in Federfarma, which supported the amendment during the debate in the Commission: "Things can only be changed with the assent of all the actors involved," the national president, Marco Cossolo, said on Wednesday at the general assembly of the Federation, "this proposal passed because it receives broad support." The examination of the decree will resume on Monday from article 4, in the hope that the classroom will be able to start examining it as early as the following day.
Finally, green light also from Federfarma-Sunifar Lombardia, which in a note recalls how "the law on the pharmacy of services was written with the intention of providing the entire Italian population with certain health services essential for the protection of public health, therefore pharmacies can significantly increase population participation in vaccination campaignsin full compliance with applicable laws. In particular», he concludes, «the rural pharmacies of small Italian towns feel they have to offer their contribution because it is precisely in areas with few health services that small pharmacies already meet the various health needs of citizens, with the sole intention of meet the needs of the population.
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Vaccines, FNOMCeO: no to doctors in pharmacies
The FNOMCeO underlines how this amendment would modify the current legislation (Art.102 del CONSOLIDATED TEXT OF HEALTH LAWS, RD 07/27/1934, n. 1265) which prevents, for obvious reasons of incompatibility of roles, functions and assumptions of conflict of interest, the performance of medical activities in pharmacies. Prohibition that has always been reaffirmed by subsequent legislation, passing from the Laws on the "Pharmacy of Services" up to the "DDL Lorenzin", currently being examined by the Social Affairs Commission of the Chamber, which expressly denies the possibility for the doctor to practice his profession within pharmacies.
The FNOMCeO cannot accept that a State law that guarantees transparency, identification of roles and responsibilities be modified by actions that would undermine the traceability of responsibilities, creating further disorientation and bewilderment among health operators. A law on the liability of healthcare professionals has recently been approved and is awaiting the implementing decrees: who benefits from proposing new activities at NHS principals that would introduce further elements of regulatory uncertainty? And finally: does the Pharmacy have adequate insurance coverage for structural liability?”.
Fedefarma. Vaccine decree, amendment passes for administration in pharmacies
Amendment 1.101 D'Ambrosio Lettieri, Mandelli
After paragraph 3, insert the following: «3-bis. In order to make access to vaccination therapy easier, administration can be carried out by doctors and nurses, even in public and private pharmacies throughout the country.
3-ter. The pharmacies where the activity referred to in paragraph 3-bis takes place must be equipped with suitable spaces from a sanitary point of view and able to guarantee the protection of privacy.
3-quater. The methods relating to the performance of the vaccination administration service in pharmacies are regulated, without new major burdens for public finance, by agreements between the regions and the trade union organizations most representative of public and private pharmacies, also taking into account the specificities and importance the role played by rural pharmacies in this area. To guarantee the supply of vaccines by pharmacies, the regions make use of the option provided for by article 8, paragraph 1, letter a), of decree-law n. 347 of 2001, converted into law no. 405 of 2001".
