The World Pharmacy Council has released a public access version of its Sector Analysis Report 2021.
The 2021 edition is the fourth annual WPC Sector Analysis report and provides an overview of community pharmacy practice, regulation, trends, opportunities, research and statistics focused primarily on WPC member countries as at August 2021.
In the report, WPC Chief Economist Stephen Armstrong says the pandemic has highlighted the potential for community pharmacists to perform at their full scope of practice.
“Scope of practice is defined as those professional activities that a healthcare professional is educated, competent and authorised to perform, and for which they are accountable,” he said.
“Implementation of full scope of practice involves the authorisation of all activities for which the professional is educated and competent.
“In the case of pharmacists, in most countries the authorisation lags far behind the education and competencies.
“Where authorisation has been forthcoming, its implementation is often held back by inflexible or insufficient funding.”
Mr Armstrong says that as the pandemic took hold, governments and regulatory bodies began to recognise the gaps that were opening up in the healthcare system.
Many soon realised that community pharmacists were competent, able and willing to fill those gaps – if only they were authorised to do so.
Changes that were triggered due to Covid-19 have included the authority to extend or adapt prescriptions, the authority to dispense medicines previously only available through hospitals, and the extension of vaccination administration authority to include greater age ranges and more vaccine types (including, in most countries, COVID-19 vaccination).
“In some countries community pharmacies have also been involved in COVID-19 antigen or antibody testing, and this is likely to become a more widely used service as time moves on.
“The implementation of the new authorities has been extremely successful. This is not surprising, as the activities were always within the competency of every pharmacist.
‘However, the challenge now is to convince governments that these sensible changes – many of which have been given only temporary status - should remain in place, permanently, for the benefit of patients and all parts of the healthcare system.”
