The Raison D’être for the Community Pharmacy and the Community Pharmacist in Sweden: A Qualitative Interview Study

Pharmacy

Kristin Wisell³  Sofia Kälvemark Sporrong²  Janine M. Traulsen¹ 

[1] id="af1-pharmacy-04-00003">1Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University, Box 580, S-751 23 Uppsala, SwedDepartment of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 2, 2100 København Ø, Denmark;;Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University, Box 580, S-751 23 Uppsala, Sweden

关键词: community pharmacy;    regulation;    pharmacy policy;    pharmacy reform;    legislation;    Sweden;   

DOI  :  10.3390/pharmacy4010003

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Community pharmacies are balancing between business (selling medicines and other products) and healthcare (using the pharmacists’ knowledge in order to improve drug utilization). This balance could be affected by regulations decided upon by politicians, but also influenced by others. The aim of this study was to explore important stakeholders’ views on community pharmacy and community pharmacists in Sweden. The method used was that of semi-structured qualitative interviews. Political, professional, and patient organization representatives were interviewed. The results show that informants who are pharmacists or representatives of a professional pharmacist organization generally have a healthcare-centered view on community pharmacy/pharmacists. However, different views on how this orientation should be performed were revealed, ranging from being specialists to dealing with uncomplicated tasks. Political organization representatives generally had a more business-oriented view, where competition in the market was believed to be the main driving force for development. A third dimension in which competition was not stressed also emerged; that community pharmacies should primarily distribute medicines. This dimension was most prevalent among the political and patient organization representatives. One conclusion to be drawn is that no stakeholder seemed to have a clear vision or was willing to take the lead for the development of the community pharmacy sector.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.