Promotion of professional pharmaceutical services. “The pharmacist you need”: health tents 2015-2016

Introduction: The Spanish Society for Family and Community Pharmacy (SEFAC in Spanish), in collaboration with the Ratiopharm pharmaceutical laboratory, carried out the project of professional pharmaceutical service tents, The Pharmacist You Need, in 2015 and 2016.

Objectives: Raise the awareness of society and patients of the activities of community pharmacists in the provision of professional pharmaceutical services (PPS) and evaluate their satisfaction with the activity.

Materials and Methods: The project is based on offering to the general public PPS actions adapted to the format of a mobile, temporary, tent-type structure. The services offered were: proper use of medicines, smoking cessation, screening for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, general nutritional advice, screening for malnutrition in people over 65, screening for diabetes, blood pressure measurement and calculation of vascular risk. The PPS were delivered by volunteer local community pharmacists (CP) who had received prior training on work protocols designed by SEFAC for its action in this setting.

Results: The event was held in 15 different cities, 655 volunteer CPs participated, attending to a total of 2,531 users who received 7,290 professional actions, an average of three per user. Most of the users surveyed after receiving the services said that their awareness of their health status and what a community pharmacy can offer them had improved.

Conclusions: A high number of the users that participated stated that their awareness of PPS and their health status had improved, and practically all of them rated the actions performed positively.