On the occasion of the lunch debate, PGEU launched its booklet on "Targeting Adherence: improving patient outcomes in Europe through community pharmacists’ intervention", outlining relevant research in this area and several community pharmacists’ initiatives in different EU countries.
The cost of non-adherence to medication is vast, in terms of wasted medicines, ineffective treatments, and of course death and injury. It has been estimated that there are 194,500 deaths a year in the EU due to missed-dose and non-adherence of prescribed medication. Non-adherence is estimated to cost the European Union 125 billion Euro annually.
MEP Drčar Murko said: "Considering the several initiatives the Parliament will be examining in the near future with regards to pharmaceuticals, debating how to improve adherence to medicines in Europe is indeed very timely. It is important to bring in to the discussions all relevant stakeholders and pharmacists are certainly one of them".
Tamás Bereczky, who contributed to the debate with a patients’ perspective on behalf of European Aids Treatment Group, stated that: "there is hardly any other disease area where adherence is as important as it is the case for HIV/AIDS. When considering how to improve adherence to medication it is critical to understand that there is no one size fits all solution; this will depend on disease areas and country realities. But there are transnational areas that can be taken into account such as encouraging education of patients, health professionals and the society in general as well as involving and informing all stakeholders".
Robert Horne, director of the Centre for Behavioural Medicine of the Pharmacy Schools of the London University, underlined that: "the hidden problem of non-adherence is that patient’s perceptual barriers (eg beliefs and preferences) as well as practical barriers (eg forgetting and complexity) are not sufficiently targeted. Informed adherence is not necessarily taking more medicines and it is not just about giving information to patients on medicines but rather exploring what the patient understands and believes about those medicines. Community pharmacists are an underutilised resource in this respect."
Ema Paulino, who contributed to the debate with a pharmacist’s perspective, highlighted several on going initiatives at country level and provided a personal insight of daily pharmacy practice aimed at providing the best care for patients. She underlined that "pharmacists have direct contact with patients, can systematically identify non-adherence and are trained in individual patient follow-up. Nonetheless, to achieve optimal patient outcomes, teamwork and communication are fundamental".
All three speakers agreed that "often the pharmacist is the most accessible health professional to patients and therefore using this relationship is crucial for better adherence".
PGEU Secretary General, Mr John Chave, stated: "it is not difficult to conclude that action is needed. It is also clear that co-ordinated action between stakeholders such as health professionals and policy makers is critical. PGEU is keen to further push the political agenda towards such co-ordinated action. The booklet published today is a good example of that and I hope it will be of use to policy makers and all relevant stakeholders ".
The full booklet on "Targeting Adherence: Improving Patient Outcomes in Europe though Community Pharmacists’ Intervention, including detailed country experiences is available both in English and French.
Note to Editors [1]
