Professional Pharmaceutical Care Services in the pharmacies of Basque Country )

Throughout history, the pharmacy has undergone major transformations. Previously, pharmacy was based on the preparation and dispensing of medicines, but due to the changes in society, the pharmaceutical profession has taken a more care path. Thus, in recent decades the development of pharmaceutical care and healthcare pharmacy has been prompted. Pharmaceutical care can be defined as the pharmacist’s professional practice of caring for the patient’s needs by detecting, preventing, and resolving drug-related problems in a continuous, systematic, and documented manner, in collaboration with the patient and other health care professionals to achieve accurate patient quality of life. Related to pharmaceutical care and healthcare pharmacy, Professional Pharmaceutical Care Services (PPCS) have been developed; so that community pharmacies offer a wide range of services to all citizens. Nowadays, in almost every country in the world, new services are being designing and implementing with the aim to also integrate them into the activity of community pharmacy. PPCSs fall currently into two groups. On the one hand, the Pharmaceutical Care Services and on the other hand, the Services related to Community Health. A few years ago, and in conjunction with the Basque Pharmacists’ Council, Basque pharmacies began offering PPCSs. These services, as important tools for change in the profession, do not only benefit patients, but also the collective of pharmacists and pharmacists themselves. However, an important challenge in promoting healthcare pharmacy is to make patients and other health professionals aware of the benefits of such clinical interventions, and thus to integrate community pharmacy into public health systems.