Community Pharmacies in Poland-The Journey from a Deregulated to a Strictly Regulated Market.

Marcin Wiśniewski,Piotr Merks,Urszula Religioni

doi:10.3390/ijerph17238751

Abstract

Community pharmacies are the primary entities providing drugs to individual patients in Poland. The pharmacy market has been changing for many years due to significant changes in market regulations. These changes significantly affect the profitability of pharmacies, which may impact the quality of pharmacotherapy. The small number of pharmacies, which resulted from changes in the law in 2017, can influence the level of patient care. The article presents the community pharmacies market in Poland. Particular attention is paid to the legal regulations affecting community pharmacies and the impact of these regulations on the overall shape of the market. The Polish system’s specificity, including the pharmacy market indicators, has been compared with data from other European Union countries.

Highlights

Drug policy is an integral part of health policy being a combination of medical and economic areas.Providing patients with effective and safe therapy seems to be one of the essential drug policy elements.appropriate drug policy is one of the most important aspects of public health [1]
In the area of drug policy, actions of governments of all countries should be directed at improving the population health and achieving better health outcomes [2], which is impossible without a rational drug policy
On the Polish community pharmacy market, a significant increase in the number of pharmacies and pharmacy chains has been observed for many years [5]

Summary

Introduction

Drug policy is an integral part of health policy being a combination of medical and economic areas. In April 2020, legal changes allowed pharmacists to prescribe the reimbursed fully paid drug pro auctore and pro familiae and fully paid drug for patients in health emergency up to a maximum of 180 days of therapy. This change was of particular importance during the pandemic when patients had significant difficulties in accessing doctors. On the Polish community pharmacy market, a significant increase in the number of pharmacies and pharmacy chains has been observed for many years [5] This situation was a stimulus for changes in legal regulations. The impact of legal changes for pharmacy owners in Poland was highlighted, referring to demographic and economic measures

Community Pharmacies Market Regulations in Poland

The Market of Community Pharmacies in Poland and EU Countries

The role of Community Pharmacists in the Healthcare System

Findings

Conclusions