Portuguese Pharmacies’ White Book

«It is essential to recognise that the Portuguese Pharmacies’ White Book will always be an instrument in progress, constantly evolving and being updated in the light of the evolution of society and the sector», says ANF president Ema Paulino in the book's opening message.

The Portuguese Pharmacies’ White Book is a map of the transformation that the pharmacy sector is proposing and is an essential part of the sector's ongoing development in the country, projecting its future and its actions in the context of healthcare.

The Portuguese Pharmacies’ White Book was presented on 20 November 2023 at the Portuguese Parliament.

The document is based on more than a hundred concrete proposals for action, organised into six lines of action:

Affirmation of the pharmacy as a space for health and well-being in the person's health journey;
Digital transformation at the service of pharmacies and people;
Generating scientific and professional evidence in health;
Valuing teams and the profession;
Promoting territorial cohesion as a response to social and health determinants;
Promoting economic and financial sustainability.

The aim of these programmes is to respond to three dimensions:

Transformation of the person's health journey
Professional and technological training to catalyse change
Knowledge and regulation at the service of society

This is the future that ANF wants to build, based on a spirit of greater integration of care, collaboration and synergy that allows value to be added to every interaction between people and pharmacies.

The document was created taking into account more than 2,000 contributions from pharmacies, ANF employees and other stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem. The public presentation took place at the Portuguese Parliament in November 2023.

To find out more about the document, visit the website of the Portuguese Pharmacies' White Book.

LIST OF ACTION PROPOSALS ALREADY FINALISED

Dispensing of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in community pharmacies. Read more.

A definitive regulatory amendment to the current law, allowing free access to seasonal vaccinations in community pharmacies under the same conditions of access that exist in the NHS network. Read more.

Granting pharmacists access, viewing and registration to the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and information on the e-Vaccines platform, subject to the user's authorisation. Find out more.

Development of the pharmaceutical service for the renewal of chronic therapy, which consists of the activation of prescription lines by the physician, with a pre-established period, allowing the pharmacist to dispense medicines prescribed for chronic diseases continuously. Read more.

Implementation of dispensing hospital medicines in community pharmacies through a sustainable and nationwide model. Find out more.

Financing the community pharmacy dispensary service. Find out more.

Boosting investment in the continuous training of pharmacists, to develop services and interventions. Find out more.

Review of guidelines for team management and human resources development in community pharmacy in Portugal. Find out more.

Reviewing and updating the regulations for prescribing and dispensing medicines. Find out more.

Consolidate the changes to the electronic prescription, so that each person’s prescriptions are aggregated into a single profile available to the pharmacist (instead of disassociated prescription codes). Read more.

Reversal of the policy of lowering the price of medicines in Portugal, allowing the sustainability of the medicine value chain and availability at national level. Find out more.