Regional Pharmacy and Therapeutics Commission reactivated - Communication

Secretaria Regional da Saúde e Desporto

The Regional Pharmacy and Therapeutics Commission has resumed its regular meetings and will now meet every month.

Chaired by the Regional Secretary for Health and Sport, Mónica Seidi, the meeting took place in Angra do Heroísmo and was attended by its full members. The Regional Director for Prevention and Control of Dependencies, Pedro Fins, was also present.

The meeting focused on issues related to addictions and the use of single-dose antibiotics in the Region. The standardisation of procedures in all Regional Health Service institutions is a concern shared by all members of the commission.

"I believe it is essential to establish closer links between more technical and specific bodies to support political decisions in the health sector. We cannot forget that it is important to make decisions that respond to the needs of the sector and that patients are our main focus," emphasised Mónica Seidi at the end of the meeting.

At this meeting, the Regional Secretary for Health and Sport had the opportunity to share with the Commission her concern about the widespread use of pseudoephedrine, a substance that is sold over the counter in pharmacies and is widely used by consumers of new psychoactive substances. This is an issue that the Regional Commission has endeavoured to bring to the attention of its national counterpart to present a united front on this issue.

"The Regional Government has been at the forefront of this fight to prevent a substance that can be used for such harmful purposes from being available without any kind of control," said Mónica Seidi.

She continued: "So far, we have not received a response to the letter sent on September 14 to the Infarmed's Commission for the Evaluation of Medicines; however, we are not going to wait and today we learned that this is an issue that we can work on with pharmacies to control the sale of this substance, demanding its respective registration."

The Regional Secretary for Health and Sport expressed her satisfaction with the way the meeting went, considering that "there was a clear agreement among all those present" to "make society a little safer" for the Azoreans.