2023-07-12 13:51:45
Posted Jul 12, 2023, 9:00 a.m. Updated Jul 12, 2023, 1:51 p.m.
The National Order of Pharmacists is concerned about the decline in its workforce. On the occasion of the publication at a press conference this Tuesday of its data for the year 2022, the observation is clear: the profession is attracting less and less. The total number of pharmacists is 73,795. It has been steadily declining since 2016. Renewal is stalling.
Not all categories of pharmacists are affected in the same way. It is above all the pharmacists who hold pharmacies who are in sharp decline (-1.1% compared to 2021, -10% compared to 2012). A decrease due in particular to the continued consolidation of the various pharmacies. The number of pharmacies per 100,000 inhabitants has thus fallen from 34 in 2012 to 30 in 2022, a decrease of 12%.
Growing needs
Other sectors, such as pharmacists in industry, distribution or assistant pharmacists, tend to witness a stabilization in their workforce, or even a slight increase. But beware of sham, warns the National Order of Pharmacists, the general situation is worrying.
Because to the general decline in the number of pharmacists are added the growing needs of an aging French population, whose access to care is increasingly precarious. The Order thus calls for an increase in the number of places filled in the pharmacy sector following the first year of access to health studies (Paces), as well as for a reform of the third cycle of studies to make it more attractive.
It also calls for further development of opportunities for mobility between the various professions in the sector, which are sometimes overlooked, such as biological pharmacists or pharmacists in health establishments. Finally, the Order calls for recognition of the diploma of pharmacists trained abroad.
Expansion of missions
So that its wishes are not mere inclinations, the Order plans to carry out, in addition to its annual quantified overview, a prospective study intended to model demographic trends by 2050, in order to alert the public authorities to these shortcomings and to enjoin him to carry out important reforms. Finally, the Order calls for further development of communication around the pharmacy professions, in particular on the Parcoursup platform and with high school and college students.
The Order also considers “essential” the continuation of the expansion of the missions of pharmacists for “rapid and simpler care” of patients, in view of “the difficulty of access to doctors”.
There are already several protocols that allow pharmacists to perform medical procedures long reserved for doctors. They can perform certain vaccinations, renew prescriptions for long-term illnesses, perform certain rapid diagnostic orientation tests (TROD) for bacterial angina, influenza and Covid.
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