The Japanese Community Pharmacists’ Perceptions of the Health Support Pharmacy System

摘要

Aquestionnaire survey was conducted employing pharmacists at 350 Japanese Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions(Min-Iren) member pharmacies, evaluating the challenges related to registeringas a Health Support Pharmacy (HSP). Completed responses were received from 193pharmacies (55.1%). Fifty-five (28.5%) of these pharmacies were approved asmeeting the HSP criteria. Some difficulties encountered in registering as anHSP included the preparation of the numerous required documents and placing ahealth support pharmacist. The obstacles that prevented pharmacists fromregistering were physical, including“placement of two or more health support pharmacists” and “placement ofthe required over-the-counter drugs (OTCs).” Based on these, 51.8% of supervising pharmacistsstated the opinion that the government should “loosen current criteria.”However, a survey conducted among the 724 participant pharmacists, working in apharmacy, showed no significant difference in their answering tendenciesdepending on whether or not they worked at an HSP. This could be attributed tothe effort that Min- Irenpharmacies have been putting into health support and primary care functions.Overall, 64.5% of pharmacists working at HSPs were proud that the pharmacy they worked had HSP status. The presentsurvey revealed the physical obstacles of HSP registration. Conformityto the criteria of HSP is essential for performing their fundamental functionsas pharmacies. The relaxation of the criteria is anticipated.