Why can’t parapharmacies swab swabs?
Pharmacies do a big deal with tampons, but parapharmacies are denied this possibility, why? Numbers, hypotheses and comments
The business of tampons in pharmacies has been talked about for some time, especially when during the Christmas holidays they were stormed in view of lunches and dinners, but now we return to the subject due to the "injustice" done to parapharmacies which, like of stepsisters, are excluded from the turnover.
How come?
THE ACCOUNTS IN THE FUBINI TWEETS
The deputy director of Corriere della Sera , Federico Fubini, told on Twitter his personal experience in undergoing an antigenic swab in a pharmacy, during which he also had the opportunity to do some calculations on how much a pharmacy can collect on average only with tampons:
WHAT HAPPENED IN PARLIAMENT
As Fubini writes, "days ago the parliament loudly rejected the opening to the hypothesis that even the parapharmacies provide antigen tests" because, the journalist supposes, "some spokesmen of the pharmacies, with valid arguments, must have convinced some parliamentarians to vote no".
WHO SAID YES AND WHO SAID NO
The amendment that extended the possibility of swabbing parapharmacies was presented in January by Gianluca Castaldi of the M5s. Although the proposal had received the positive opinion of the government and the supervisor of the provision, Nazario Pagano of Forza Italia, it then met with the 'no' of the Brothers of Italy, Lega and Italia Viva.
"The rapid swabs for Covid must also be carried out in parapharmacies and the battle of the 5 Star Movement will go on," said Castaldi . “It is time to respond to the availability of parapharmacies and expand the ability of citizens to carry out rapid antigen tests. Screening is a key part of pandemic management. Today – he concludes – we could have made it stronger ”.
THE SILENCE OF FDI
Yesterday, during the broadcast Tuesday on La7 , the deputy of LeU, Pier Luigi Bersani, returned to the question asking for explanations to the exponent of Fratelli d'Italia, Elisabetta Gardini: "Speaking of work, it means to me why Fratelli d'Italia , Lega, Renzi and the whole center rejected an amendment that extended the possibility of swabs at parapharmacies? ".
“You are angry with the government, but not with the lobbies. We are talking about work and the dignity of a pharmacist who is not given the opportunity to swab in his parapharmacy. It's a shame. When you get to the point, you do not escape these aspects of Italietta either ". So concludes Bersani, who does not receive a response from Gardini.
THE SHADOW OF THE LOBBIES
Il Fatto Quotidiano also wrote about the pharmacists' lobby, recalling that the force fighter Andrea Mandelli is not only a deputy and vice-president of the Chamber but also the president of the Order of pharmacists.
"I swear to you on what I hold most dear: I have not suffered any pressure from Mandelli" assured Pagano . However, the newspaper claims that Mandelli "worked hard with his fellow senators to argue that the parapharmacies should be kept out of the swab circuit, as was the case on time".
“We cannot but believe that the obstacles to the various amendments recently proposed to have swabs carried out in the parapharmacy have not been a pretext and instrumentally raised by those who have the power to do so. President Mandelli, who represents the entire category of Pharmacists, should make our declaration of unity his own, giving a signal of protection of the profession ”, was the comment of the National Union of pharmacists who own only parapharmacy (Unaftisp).
WHAT THE PARAPHARMACIES SAY
"To prevent swabs from being made in a parapharmacy, a real smear campaign is underway". This is what was declared by Davide Gullotta , president of the National Federation of Italian Parapharmacies (Fnpi).
“Unfortunately, even today representatives of pharmacy owners continue to convey falsehoods such as that the parapharmacies are not on the TS portal, that the parapharmacies cannot manage tax codes or that the parapharmacy would not have the same level of security. A real erroneous narrative is taking place – continues Gullotta – which aims to damage the parapharmacies and convey the image that even the tax codes of customers cannot be managed safely in the parapharmacy ”.
“For years, the parapharmacies have been managing the tax codes of their customers by sending the data for the pre-filled 730 and the talking receipts with the same software and methods that are found in the pharmacy. But despite this, these absurdities continue to be conveyed. In Lombardy – denounces the president of the Fnpi – the message is even passed that the request for tampons in parapharmacies comes mainly from large-scale distribution and that the majority of parapharmacies are large-scale distribution. A clearly false figure: we remember, in fact, that the parapharmacies of the large-scale distribution (the so-called corners) numerically represent just under 10% of the total of parapharmacies in Italy and that the request to be able to do the tampons comes from us neighborhood pharmacists ".
“In fact, in Lombardy – concludes Gullotta – despite the emergency and the vote of the regional council, it is still expected that the parapharmacies will be able to swab. A bureaucratic slowness that does not fit in well with a moment of emergency like the one we are experiencing. It is frustrating and shameful to have to repeat every time obvious obvious such as the fact that for years the parapharmacies have been sending data on the TS portal and that they are places controlled by the ASL ”.
IT STARTS IN SPARED ORDER
To date, with the exception of the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano, where some parapharmacies are carrying out swabs independently, in the rest of Italy it is not yet possible. Initially, in the Marches, Socialfarma recalls, the Region had started the execution of rapid swabs also at parapharmacies, but the permit was revoked after a few days.
"We need to expand the detection activities of infections from Sars-Cov-2, for this reason I requested and obtained from the Abruzzo region the commitment to put in place everything necessary so that the parapharmacies, equipped with suitable spaces under the hygienic-sanitary profile of security and protection of confidentiality, can carry out rapid unsanitary tests and access the results registration platform ". This is the announcement of Francesco Taglieri , vice president of the Health Commission of the Region and signatory of the Resolution approved yesterday unanimously which opens the way for the execution of rapid tests also in parapharmacy.
Meanwhile, the owners of the businesses and the trade associations are awaiting the sentence of the Constitutional Court.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/perche-le-parafarmacie-non-possono-fare-i-tamponi/ on Wed, 09 Feb 2022 11:17:27 +0000.