With nearly 120,000 new positive cases detected every day on average in recent weeks, pharmacists are organizing to meet the increased demand for tests and vaccines.
They are on the front line in the face of the deterioration of the health situation during this summer period. With nearly 30% of positive cases reported among people tested nationwide today, pharmacies have been facing increased demand for antigenic tests and anti-Covid vaccine for three weeks. This Monday, there are around 124,000 positive cases recorded daily on average since last week, against just under 20,000 on June 1, according to the CovidTracker site.
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«The people who come to be tested are mainly symptomatic patients or contact cases whereas, last year, people mainly came to be tested to obtain the health pass.notes Bruno Maleine, president of the Central Council of community pharmacies. For vaccination, we see an influx of patients, mainly over 60s, who had not yet had their 3e dose. They are often somewhat skeptical people. Added to this are the test requests to be able to board a plane bound for certain countries. However, nothing compares to the situation experienced by pharmacists this winter with the emergence of the extremely contagious Omicron variant. ” For the moment we are still managing to cope, the French have gotten used to the self-tests and we now have the experience that we did not have last year.»
Paris and Loire-Atlantique particularly affected
To facilitate the arrival of customers, some pharmacies, for example, favor making appointments. “ If the demand in terms of testing continues to increase, we will have to resort more to making appointments on Doctolib“, anticipates Mamod D., 38, already forced to go back and forth between the back room and the test tent of his pharmacy in Paris.
In Nantes, in Loire-Atlantique, the second department with the highest incidence rate after the capital, many pharmacies are also overloaded. « We stopped doing antigenic tests to focus on vaccination because we can’t do everything at the same timeexplains Benoit H., 31 years old. On the other hand, we sell a lot of self-tests, almost four times more in the past week. »
As for the whole territory, Jack *, 49, director of a pharmacy in the city center, has noticed a sharp increase in the rate of vaccination in his establishment. ” We were at two bottles a week a week ago, and now we’re down to one bottle a day. All our slots are filled“. Unlike others, his establishment nevertheless still manages to cope according to him.
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Supporting medical students
If pharmacists are delighted with the number of tests and doses available to them, it is however at the level of the staff available that the concern lies. With the start of the school holidays, many teams are preparing to go on vacation.
For Jack, quite calm about his organization despite the influx of customers, the solution has been found. “ To compensate for the departures on vacation of our employees on July 14, we are calling on medical students who we trained this winter. They are recruited during the holidays for full-time fixed-term contracts.»
Although this is a workforce very regularly called upon by pharmacies, not all of them necessarily use it. ” We have sometimes noticed a lack of seriousness on their part, so today we prefer to do without them.“says Corinne D. 51, pharmacist in Paris, despite the work overload. ” We had to remove the tent at the entrance, to avoid attracting even more customers, especially since there are people who call us because they have not received their results due to computer bugs. The SI-DEP online platform is in fact occasionally subject to blockages due, according to Bruno Maleine, to peaks in activity, especially on Mondays, when pharmacies are faced with a large influx of contact case customers due to a festive gathering on weekends.
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Pierre-Olivier Variot, pharmacist in Dijon, attributes this pressure in particular, in addition to the 30% more test requests over a smoothed week, to the pricing policy of health insurance. “ The amount of reimbursement for tests carried out by pharmacies has recently been revised downwards, denounces the president of the USPO union. LPharmacies no longer have as much means as before to pay students or nurses to deal with the resurgence of the epidemic. “While screenings are currently carried out for the most part by pharmacies, the trade unionist would like a fairer distribution with other health professionals authorized to carry out the tests, such as midwives or general practitioners. ” Pharmacists no longer want to bend over backwards like this winter ».
Recently the government extended the authorization for pharmacies that are not on call to remain open on Sundays to exclusively carry out screenings, vaccinations or the delivery of treatments.
*: The first name has been changed
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