pharmacists demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Health

Pharmacists mobilized Thursday in front of the Ministry of Health to warn of drug shortages, the closure of pharmacies and financial difficulties.

The demonstration juggled between showers and sunny spells. The mobilization is important: 70 to 90% of pharmacies are closed Thursday May 30. Some pharmacies had to be requisitioned by the health authorities.

Pharmacists are first asking the government to develop a plan to combat drug shortages. Last year, more than 5,000 supply shortages or tensions were noted. An increasing figure, regrets Sonia Jouve, representative of the USPO union: “Pharmacists can no longer spend hours and hours every week finding medications for their patients.”

“On average, we spend around ten hours per week in each pharmacy, it’s enormous.”

Sonia Jouve, representative of the USPO union

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“There are still certain wholesalers who have boxes in the morning or evening that everyone flocks tosays Sophie Juve. We call our colleagues, who may have some. And we also have the possibility of calling the laboratories directly to find out if it is a long break. So it’s a lot of work.”

They worked a lot during Covid and made money as a result. But today, many of France’s 20,000 pharmacies are in financial difficulty: a pharmacy closes almost every day. For what ? This is the repercussion of inflation for two years and also of the drug pricing policy, according to Philippine Omont, pharmacist in Oise. “These prices fall every year. The margin for medicines is decreasing, so is our margin. You should also know that there has been an increase in salaries since Covid, which is very good for employees, but that puts a strain on pharmacy coffers. There comes a time when money has to come from somewhere.”

With this demonstration, pharmacists hope to put pressure on Health Insurance, with whom they have been negotiating for several months the increase in their fees, that is to say the amount they receive on each prescription of treated medications dispensed.

Pharmacists fear that the government will make it easier to sell medicines on the internet. And then, they also fear the arrival of large financial groups in the sector, explains Béatrice Clairaz, pharmacist in Hauts de Seine: “We can clearly see what this has done with biology laboratories. We also see what it has given in nursing homes, with private funds. It is a logic of profitability, not at all a logic of public health. So there is a danger for the pharmacy network. There is a danger for the health of patients.”

Pharmacies in danger even though there is still a significant territorial network in France, and the pharmacist often remains the only local health professional. Pharmacists do not want France to become a country of pharmaceutical deserts, as it has already become a country of medical deserts.