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Letters to the Editor
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Pharmacy in Spain
Different countries have different systems
From Miss R. Millet Palmada, MRPharmS
I would like to comment on Michael
Lord’s letter “Stay in
the UK or say adios to your rights” (PJ, 11 November, p571).
When I arrived in Britain from Spain, I also thought I had the right to
work as a pharmacist in other EU countries. However, I had to go through
a four-month period feeling totally undervalued, unable to sell a medicine
without being supervised by other pharmacists and earning half the salary
of what a pharmacist gets in Britain. Therefore, I understood that I was
not considered a pharmacist in Britain although I had studied for five
years and qualified as a pharmacist in Spain. Moreover, no continuing professional
development that I had carried out in Spain was valid in Britain as CPD.Is
that not also unfair?
Concerning the possibilities of obtaining a licence to open a new pharmacy,
the legislation in Spain is as it is and all pharmacists in Spain have
to go through waiting lists and courses to be able to go further up the
queue. The legislation goes for all, no matter where they come from. Many
people have been waiting for 10 years to get a licence.
The fact that there are many British expatriates in Spain and that medicines
leaflets will be in Spanish does not mean that these people cannot rely
on medicines prescribed and dispensed in Spain. I would not expect to arrive
in the UK, or any other country, and receive leaflets in Spanish. Wherever
one goes, one has to consider that in advance. One only has to go to a
pharmacy and ask for the pharmacist, who is present and can offer all the
advice a patient needs. I am sure British expatriates receive high quality
counselling.
Mr Lord says there are no UK pharmacists practising in Spain. If there
are not any there, or in other countries, this does not mean that they
are not welcome; it probably means that there is no shortage of pharmacists
in those countries.
In summary, it should not matter where in EU one qualified but it does
matter that one has to adapt to wherever one goes to work because different
countries have difference systems and laws.
Rocío Millet Palmada
London |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal