Identifying areas where the need for medicines justifies the establishment of new pharmacies: this is the task assigned until February 2025 to the regional health agencies (ARS). A task that turns out to be particularly arduous: “ My feedback from the field shows a great difficulty in determining in the most accurate way which territories can be considered fragile. », Explains Pierre-Olivier Variot, president of the Union of Community Pharmacists Unions (USPO). Lucie-Hélène Pagnat, lawyer within the union, points out “ a methodological problem and a disparity of approaches between the different ARS, which have difficulty reconciling the criteria of the decree and the real needs of the network. » Difficulties to which are added “ the pressure suffered by regional agencies from elected officials wishing to see a pharmacy set up in their municipality », Adds the president of the USPO.
Do not encroach on existing pharmacies
The embarrassment is such that a centralized meeting by the general direction of care provision (DGOS) will take place on October 8 to collect the problems encountered by the ARS and try to remedy them. “ The biases of this text are numerous. The fact that it is based on life-health territories does not seem reasonable to me. I asked that we instead rely on the maps that were made in 2000, which clearly define the pharmacy and its catchment area », assures Pierre-Olivier Variot. For the head of the USPO, it is important that each pharmacy maintains a population base of 3,500 to 4,000 inhabitants, “ so that no new establishment encroaches on the patient base of a pharmacy that has been established for several years. »
The USPO, which is closely following this matter, still hopes to see the decree simply invalidated: the union is in fact awaiting the verdict of the Council of State regarding its appeal filed in August. The deadlines for rendering a decision by this administrative body are long: you will have to wait between six months and two years.
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