Provision of community pharmacy services during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Estonia – experiences and future implications

Kadi Lubi,L. Vilka,J. Vike,Kristiina Sepp,Daisy Volmer,Hedvig Rass

doi:10.1051/shsconf/202213102005

Kadi Lubi, L. Vilka + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202213102005

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Abstract

The spread of COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 had significant impact on the functioning of the existing healthcare system and required fast adaption to new circumstances for continuing with daily practices. Community pharmacists shared responsibility of ensuring supply of medicines and medical devices, educating people on health related issues, providing pharmaceutical care etc. The aim of this study was to understand how the provision of community pharmacy services changed during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in spring of 2020 in Estonia. Qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. Recorded interviews with community pharmacists (n = 21) and experts (n =10) were transcribed verbatim and a systematic text condensation method for textual content analysis was performed. The findings indicated that a number of changes took place in provision of community pharmacy services to assure continuity in providing high-quality pharmacy services in crisis, including addressing difficulties in the supply of medicines; at the same time, to acquire new knowledge for counselling health related topics and personal protective equipment, and to provide psychological support to people in stress. Pandemic had an impact on the content and structure of traditional community pharmacy services in Estonia. The need for expanded professional role of pharmacists was clearly expressed in an emergency situation.

Highlights

Community pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals and often as the first point of contact for patients within healthcare system [1,2]
3 Results and discussion In Estonia, the COVID-19 pandemic affected the operation of healthcare system including community pharmacies
Community pharmacies provided convenient access to patient care and medicines The fast and convenient access to the patient care due to the location and opening hours of community pharmacies is well known from the pre-COVID-19 period but has not been well recognized by the other healthcare stakeholders in Estonia [7]

Summary

Introduction

Community pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals and often as the first point of contact for patients within healthcare system [1,2]. They are specialists of medicines, counselling the patients or other healthcare professionals and compounding medicines, and support patient‘s self-care and general wellbeing. In some countries the professional competencies of pharmacists are underused, in other countries, in contrast, the role of community pharmacists has evolved and in addition to traditional services, extended services, e.g., vaccination, point-of-care testing and health screening are offered. Studies have shown that community pharmacists can reduce the workload of general practitioners, ensuring the quality of care and patient satisfaction [4,5,6]

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