Plan is to extend speciality into pharmacies nationwide
This month 20 pharmacists with expertise in oncology will be working in Portuguese SNS public hospitals. It is a first, and a plan to be extended to professionals in community pharmacies.
Speaking to Lusa, president of the Order of Pharmacists, Hélder Mota Filipe, explained that an exam took place in December covering the 20 pharmacists ensuring that they had the necessary competence to offer cancer patients a “more differentiated pharmaceutical support”.
“Today, managing therapy in an oncological disease is highly complex and hence the need to (…) differentiate pharmacists to manage therapy in oncology”, he said, stressing that cancer is a chronic disease “with times when it is more hospital-based and others when it is more home-based and outpatient”.
“What we want is for patients, regardless of where they are, to be accompanied by colleagues with the same skills to be able to solve their problems,” he said.
These first 20 pharmacists represent “the beginning of a path” to be able to guarantee this support to patients.
Mota Filipe also considered that, with the expansion of hospital medicine dispensing services in proximity from January, cancer patients who meet the conditions for this can also be better monitored in their pharmacies, since this competence will be extended to these pharmacists.
In this regard, the president said that some work is already being done with hospital units, which have shown “great openness”.
“We are also, for the first time in pharmacists, using clinical simulation in training,” he added.
A new exam period is scheduled for March.
The Order of Pharmacists is also working on other areas of expertise, writes Lusa, such as public health, pharmaceutical medicine and clinical research.
Source material: LUSA
