TY - JOUR

T1 - The raison d'etre for the community pharmacy and the community pharmacist in Sweden

T2 - A qualitative interview study

AU - Wisell, Kristin

AU - Kälvemark Sporrong, Sofia

PY - 2016/3

Y1 - 2016/3

N2 - Community pharmacies are balancing between business (selling medicines and otherproducts) and healthcare (using the pharmacists’ knowledge in order to improve drug utilization).This balance could be affected by regulations decided upon by politicians, but also influenced byothers. The aim of this study was to explore important stakeholders’ views on community pharmacyand community pharmacists in Sweden. The method used was that of semi-structured qualitativeinterviews. Political, professional, and patient organization representatives were interviewed.The results show that informants who are pharmacists or representatives of a professional pharmacistorganization generally have a healthcare-centered view on community pharmacy/pharmacists.However, different views on how this orientation should be performed were revealed, rangingfrom being specialists to dealing with uncomplicated tasks. Political organization representativesgenerally had a more business-oriented view, where competition in the market was believed to be themain driving force for development. A third dimension in which competition was not stressed alsoemerged; that community pharmacies should primarily distribute medicines. This dimension wasmost prevalent among the political and patient organization representatives. One conclusion to bedrawn is that no stakeholder seemed to have a clear vision or was willing to take the lead for thedevelopment of the community pharmacy sector.

AB - Community pharmacies are balancing between business (selling medicines and otherproducts) and healthcare (using the pharmacists’ knowledge in order to improve drug utilization).This balance could be affected by regulations decided upon by politicians, but also influenced byothers. The aim of this study was to explore important stakeholders’ views on community pharmacyand community pharmacists in Sweden. The method used was that of semi-structured qualitativeinterviews. Political, professional, and patient organization representatives were interviewed.The results show that informants who are pharmacists or representatives of a professional pharmacistorganization generally have a healthcare-centered view on community pharmacy/pharmacists.However, different views on how this orientation should be performed were revealed, rangingfrom being specialists to dealing with uncomplicated tasks. Political organization representativesgenerally had a more business-oriented view, where competition in the market was believed to be themain driving force for development. A third dimension in which competition was not stressed alsoemerged; that community pharmacies should primarily distribute medicines. This dimension wasmost prevalent among the political and patient organization representatives. One conclusion to bedrawn is that no stakeholder seemed to have a clear vision or was willing to take the lead for thedevelopment of the community pharmacy sector.

KW - community pharmacy

KW - regulation

KW - pharmacy policy

KW - pharmacy reform

KW - legislation

KW - Sweden

U2 - 10.3390/pharmacy4010003

DO - 10.3390/pharmacy4010003

M3 - Journal article

VL - 4

SP - 1

EP - 10

JO - Pharmacy

JF - Pharmacy

SN - 2226-4787

IS - 1

M1 - 3

ER -