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For me, this year’s EPSA Annual Reception started
on Saturday 12th March as I arrived, alongside
with Emma Bates (LS and NIMP for BPSA United
Kingdom), for the EPSA Team Meeting at the PGEU
office. Whilst we initially intended our attendance to
be a short break from exploring Brussels, we spent
the remainder of the weekend with the EPSA Team,
making the most of a great opportunity to strengthen
our involvement.
Jūratė Švarcaitė, Secretary General from Pharmaceutical
Group of the European Union (PGEU) stated
that every second patient is taking medicine as they
should, whereas the health system was assuming that
all the patients would take their medicines correctly.
She pointed out what pharmacists do in pharmacies
and how it can help the current situation. A lot of
work is to be done on adherence; it should be made
sure that medicines already in the market show the
required effects. Jūratė emphasised that the box
can be priced, but the service, which enables the
box to deliver results, could not be. We should help
patients to achieve the best results and ensure that
the health systems do not waste resources, since
the money spent on resources should be considered
an investment and not expenditure.
A lively discussion with the audience, composed of
approximately 100 pharmacy students, stakeholders
in the pharmacy field and European institutions
followed. Topics such as accessibility of medicines,
transparency of expenditures, investment in
prevention and pharmacists as a central role in
healthcare were tackled.
It was pointed out that pharmacists were an untapped
resource across the entire healthcare system. The
role of pharmacists would be crucial in assuring the
sustainability of the healthcare system in the future.
The array of activities planned was impressive, and
a testament to the incredible organisation of the
Annual Reception. The science excursion, tour of
European Parliament, and the visit to the Parlamentarium
were some of the pre-Reception highlights.
The Annual Reception itself exceeded expectations,
with a variety of debates and talks. Some of the
topics discussed include whether companies are
focusing too much on the development of “me-too”
products rather than on innovation, methods of
waste reduction such as labelling products with
their cost and counselling patients appropriately and
how we can reduce the cost of healthcare without
compromising patients’ health.
In his closing statement, Cristian-Silviu Bușoi, MEP
for Romania, praised the debate, the panel of
speakers and the organisation praise I could not
agree with more. I would wholeheartedly recommend
Annual Reception to every student with an interest in
European healthcare.
Conor McCahill
Participant of the EPSA Annual
Reception 2016
BPSA United Kingdom
Maja Šerčić
EPSA Vice President of
External Affairs
vp.ea@epsa-online.org
The whole Annual Reception
was live-streamed and is
available on the official EPSA
YouTube channel.
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online 19