E-drug: Siting policies for retail/community pharmacies (cont'd)
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In France the law says that no new community pharmacy may
open where there is already one pharmacy:
- for 3,000 inhabitants in towns exceeding 30,000;
- for 2,500 inhabitants in towns with 5,000-30,000 inhabitants;
- for minimum 2,000 inhabitants in towns with less than 5,000
inhabitants.
There are exemptions to this rule, for instance in towns with less
than 2,000 inhabitants, according to local considerations, but
also in bigger towns. Because many pharmacists completed
courses in the last twenty years, and due to the law, you may
find a pharmacy everywhere in France. The problem is that
more and more pharmacies face financial problems because
they are too small. This pushes pharmacists to sell what we call
"parapharmacy" which means that products sold are not drugs,
but "close to"...
In conclusion, for public health/social issues, the French law has
organised a wide dissemination of pharmacies in France (which
is a country with a rather low population density). Some of these
pharmacies (more than 20,000 for 60 millions inhabitants) sell
everything they can to survive and are more commercial than
health settings...
Pierre Chirac
France
E-mail: pierchir@club-internet.fr
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