The proposal, which aims to "increase efficiency" in the national health system, was presented by the president of the ANF, Ema Paulino, to the president and vice president of the National Health Council (CNS), Vítor Ramos and Lucília Nunes, respectively, at a meeting in Lisbon, which is part of a round of meetings with stakeholders in health policies.

Speaking to the Lusa at the end of the meeting, Ema Paulino said that the purpose of this meeting was to demonstrate the availability of the ANF to continue collaborating with the CNS, which brings together a series of partners in the health sector.

For Ema Paulino, "it makes perfect sense that community pharmacies, through their highly qualified professionals, can also be part of these solutions" and present their proposals related to the topics that are under discussion, namely access to health data, realizing the intention foreseen, including in the legislation, of the people holding their data being able to share them, with their consent, with health professionals.

“The community pharmacist who is part of this multidisciplinary team should also be able, if the person so wishes”, to access this data in order, on the one hand, to be able to carry out “their professional interventions in a more enlightened, informed way”, and on the other hand, “also be able to record the pharmaceutical interventions you make in the community pharmacy so that they can be consulted by other health professionals”, she defended.

“At the moment, we have an electronic health record that already allows access by doctors and nurses, namely at the public system level. Our expectation is that the electronic health record can create other access profiles, namely for pharmacists working in community pharmacies and that it is defined within the electronic health record which information the pharmacist will have access to and how can register their pharmaceutical interventions”.

In summary, Ema Paulino said that what is missing is not computer developments, but a consensus on what information the pharmacist will have access to and how they can keep their records and how other professionals will be able to access them.

The president of the National Health Council, Victor Ramos, also highlighted the importance of this information system to “avoid errors, redundancies and waste”.