If you were planning to go to your usual pharmacy this Thursday, the result is likely to be the same, wherever you are in France: a curtain drawn and a pharmacy closed. At the call of the main unions, pharmacists are called to strike for 24 hours, and will also demonstrate across the country. 90 to 95% of the 20,000 pharmacies should be closed, say the union organizations, in a mobilization which should reach levels not seen in more than ten years.
“Community pharmacists are angry and intend to make it known!”, affirms the Union of Community Pharmacists Unions (USPO) in its press release. In their sights, financial problems, and a desire to highlight the economic difficulties of the sector. Pharmacists are calling in particular for an increase in their fees and support, which they believe is essential to cope with the explosion in costs due to inflation.
A revaluation of 1 billion euros demanded
While the unions were hoping for an increase of almost 1 billion euros compared to 2019, the amount proposed by Health Insurance during conventional negotiations, opening at the end of 2023, would be far from the mark in their eyes. “The budget that is on the table does not allow all the pharmacies to be financed,” assures the president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF), Philippe Besset, recalling that 46 pharmacies have closed since January, after 330 closures in 2023 .
What health insurance is proposing “cannot be enough, especially when we consider these proposals” the sums currently being negotiated for doctors, Pierre-Olivier Variot, president of the USPO. A budget considered all the more insufficient when the sector is asked to “carry out additional public health missions”, such as vaccinations or screenings, believes the union organization.
Shortages and online sales
Another strong demand from pharmacists: solutions to drug shortages, which “complexify patient care and burden the daily management of our practice”, details the FSPF. These supply problems had further exploded by more than 30.9% in 2023, the Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) detailed at the start of the year. In volume, this represents nearly 5,000 reports of stock shortages or risks of stock shortages, which make the days of pharmacists heavier, looking for alternative solutions for their customers.
Although a law was passed last March in the National Assembly on this subject, imposing minimum stocks on manufacturers, the response does not seem to have fully convinced the sector. Especially since the unions are also up against another political project: the possible liberalization of the online sale of medicines, an avenue put forward by the executive at the start of the year. The organizations denounce an “additional risk of destabilization of the pharmacy network”, with the possible entry into the market of giants like Amazon and competition deemed unfair. “Platforms with remote stocks are called Amazon. So it’s the death of pharmacy,” warned Pierre-Olivier Variot.
“To open the government’s eyes to the consequences of the policies pursued for too many years, we have, in the immediate future, no other choice than to lower the curtain and expect from Health Insurance the essential means to survival of the pharmacy network”, concludes the FSPF in its press release.