In its statement, Näe ry (the Finnish Association of Vision and Eyecare) emphasizes that the reform of pharmacy services must ensure a level playing field between pharmacies and other healthcare service providers. The association considers that the current proposal does not sufficiently open the market to competition nor address the key structural shortcomings of the existing system.
Näe ry stresses that a central objective of the reform should be the development of genuinely multi-channel pharmaceutical counselling services and their decoupling from pharmacy-specific structures. In addition, the regulatory framework should be developed to enable service provision through cooperation between different actors and to facilitate market entry without unnecessary barriers.
The association believes that, as a whole, the reform should promote fair competition, customer-oriented services, and broader access to pharmaceutical and medicine distribution services by a wider range of providers.
