Estonia, Markets and Companies, Medicine, Retail

At present, there are approximately 55 such branch pharmacies across Estonia. The situation is the most critical in East-Viru County, where altogether 17 pharmacies are to be closed. Nearly half of the pharmacies will be closed in Kohtla-Jarve and Narva, but also in several other towns, like Rapla, Polva and Maardu.

Pharmacy owners are asking for pharmacy customers to understand that behind this step are the decisions of the Ministry of Social Affairs as well as the parliament and that the closing of the pharmacies planned for half a day on Monday will become a permanent phenomenon next year if the parliament does not solve the problem of branch pharmacies quickly. Unfortunately, heads of the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Agency of Medicines currently do not sense the needs of pharmacy customers and have repeatedly claimed that the closing of branch pharmacies will in no way impact the availability of medicines as the next closest pharmacy should be located approximately within a radius of two kilometers.

Timo Danilov, head of the Estonian Pharmacies Association, said that the parliament's objective when amending the Medicinal Products Act four years ago was not to close branch pharmacies, but it still turned out like that. The parliament wanted to raise the quality of branch pharmacies and obligated pharmacy owners to turn them into main pharmacies. In reality, law amendments in conflict with each other made the rearrangement impossible.

"Now, the so-called five-year transition period is about to end, during which the pharmacies should have been rearranged. That is to have done something, which according to law is not possible. Instead of increased quality, visitors will sadly be faced with closed doors. Today, we want to show what this means in practice," the head of the association said.

According to the association, the contradiction that has emerged within the Medicinal Products Act has a negative impact in two ways. "Firstly, a faulty Medicinal Products Act damages the interests of consumers as fewer pharmacies means a worse availability of medicines. Several officials have claimed that the closing of branch pharmacies will not cause a problem with the availability of medicines. We have seen no analyses regarding that that would confirm these claims. On the contrary, both local governments as well as the Chamber of Disabled People see a problem in the closing of branch pharmacies," Danilov said.

"Secondly, this kind of organization of matters and the unwillingness to correct mistakes damage the interests of pharmacies and pharmacists. Pharmacy owners lack the possibility to sell the pharmacies that have been caught up in the regulation trap, there is no possibility to maintain jobs for one's employees and it has a clear impact on the reputation of the Estonian entrepreneurship environment," Danilov said.

The Estonian Pharmacies Association has on multiple occasions directed the state's attention to the worsening of the availability of medicines and the legal problems as well as proposed to harmonize the deadline for doing away with branch pharmacies with the implementation of the general pharmacy ownership restrictions from April 1, 2020, starting from which the owners of pharmacies can only be pharmacists.

The Estonian Pharmacies Association is a non-governmental organisation that connects pharmacies and pharmacists. The aim of the association is to protect the social, professional and financial legal rights of pharmacies and their workers. The Estonian Pharmacies Association was founded on February 5, 2002. The association has 296 pharmacies as members.