Provision of community pharmacy services during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Estonia – experiences and future implications

Abstract

The spread of COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 had significant impact on the functioning of the existing healthcare system and required fast adaption to new circumstances for continuing with daily practices. Community pharmacists shared responsibility of ensuring supply of medicines and medical devices, educating people on health related issues, providing pharmaceutical care etc. The aim of this study was to understand how the provision of community pharmacy services changed during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in spring of 2020 in Estonia. Qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. Recorded interviews with community pharmacists (n = 21) and experts (n =10) were transcribed verbatim and a systematic text condensation method for textual content analysis was performed. The findings indicated that a number of changes took place in provision of community pharmacy services to assure continuity in providing high-quality pharmacy services in crisis, including addressing difficulties in the supply of medicines; at the same time, to acquire new knowledge for counselling health related topics and personal protective equipment, and to provide psychological support to people in stress. Pandemic had an impact on the content and structure of traditional community pharmacy services in Estonia. The need for expanded professional role of pharmacists was clearly expressed in an emergency situation.