1. POLITICS Scenario submission for POLITICS Competition “Collaborative Learning and Sharing about Politics”

2. POLITICS The Future of Greek Health System: Greek Pharmacies 26 March 2011, Athens Katerina Giagiakou Greek Pharmacist

3. POLITICS Scenario Description Topic Social Policy and Health, Economy Title The Future of Greek Health System: Greek Pharmacies Short description This scenario provides information about the changes that the Greek government is planning for the Greek pharmacies and the effect this will have on the Greek Society

4. POLITICS Scenario Description List of activities Activity 1: Find a related article on the Internet and comment on the presented opinions. Activity 2: Find a video that presents a view on the debate about the proposed changes for pharmacies and provide your comments. Activity 3: Find a blog that discusses the proposed changes for pharmacies and comment on the opinions presented. Activity 4: Search an image related to pharmacies (with a license that allows free use, remix and sharing, e.g. Creative Commons) and describe it. Activity 5: Find a Wiki page that presents some information for pharmacies and comment on the content. Activity 6: Find a Facebook group that discusses the proposed changes for pharmacies and comment on the opinions presented. Activity 7: Create a Word Cloud using the text of your comments for each activity. Activity 8: Create a Poster to express your opinion on the proposed changes for pharmacies and describe it.

5. POLITICS Activity 1 Learning tasks: Find a related article on the Internet and comment on the presented opinions. Tools/resources: Internet Duration: 30 minutes

6. POLITICS Screenshot of Article http://www.grreporter.info/en/pharmacists_adamant_against_increasing_nu mber_pharmacies_and_do_not_want_chains_global_companies/397

7. POLITICS Comments on Article This article presents an interview with Thanasis Papathanasis who is the secretary general of the Greek Pharmaceutical Union. The main point of his interview is that the pharmacists are ready to help but not to be ruined. The article indicates that the pharmacies in Greece are 12 000, three times more than in other European countries. The actual allocation of pharmacies in Greece is one per 850 people, instead of one per 1500 as the law states. The article talks about the fact that the government owes more than 450 million euros to the pharmacists while they have already prepaid the amount of the value added tax which was around 75 million euros. I agree with the facts that he states and I believe that this situation will lead to the introduction of foreign multinationational companies who will buy out the Greek pharmacies and have no interest in the quality health of the Greek people.

8. POLITICS Activity 2 Learning tasks: Find a video that presents a view on the debate about the changes in new pharmacies and provide your comments. Tools/resources: YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) or other video sharing web space. Duration: 30 minutes

9. POLITICS Screenshot of Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LpgIib2x3A&feature=related

10. POLITICS Related video This video presents the changes proposed from the Greek government to allow large corporations from abroad to open and/or buy hundreds of pharmacies in Greece. The current law prohibits a common merchant from opening a pharmacy or owning a percentage of a pharmacy. This prevents having pharmacy owners who take decisions based purely of profit. The decisions should be made on medical reasons only, something that a merchant and not a scientist would probably not do. The Greek society would not benefit from supermarkets controlling the drugs market. This is something that already applies for all other products sold in super markets in Greece, where almost everything is sold almost 30% higher than in Germany or other European countries.

11. POLITICS Activity 3 Learning tasks: Find a blog that discusses the proposed changes in Greek pharmacies and comment on the opinions presented. Tools/resources: a blog Duration: 30 minutes

12. POLITICS Screenshot of blog http://farmakopoioi.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post_6538.html

13. POLITICS Useful Information This is an article from the Pharmacists blog (farmakopoioi.blogspot). It talks about the fact that “OPAD” a public insurance agency for people working for the government, owes 8-10 months of payments to the pharmacists which have to cover 75-90% of the drugs, since they have to pay their suppliers several months before they get paid. If you also consider the fact that they have already prepaid the amount of the value added tax which accounts to these unpaid drugs, you can clearly understand why this pushes smaller pharmacies to get loans. The article speaks about the high cost drugs which according to law have to be paid to the pharmacies within 45 days, while they haven’t been paid for over 6 months. The pharmacies can buy these drugs only directly by the pharmaceutical companies which require a payment in advance. It’s a pity that the government doesn’t obey it’s own laws.

14. POLITICS Activity 4 Learning tasks: Search an image related to pharmacies (with a license that allows free use, remix and sharing, e.g. Creative Commons) and describe it. Tools/resources: Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) or other image sharing web space Duration: 15 minutes

15. POLITICS Related image http://www.flickr.com/photos/ubookworm/206770607/sizes/m/in/photostre am/

16. POLITICS Related image This picture shows a pharmacy in Tokyo Japan. When pharmacies are turned into simple commercial stores the main goal is to making profit and loose the scientific character and the personalised approach that they currently have. When a merchant and not a pharmacist runs a pharmacy, then he is not concerned with which medicine will have the better effect but which will give the better profit. This is not promising for the health of the people.

17. POLITICS Activity 5 Learning tasks: Find a Wiki page that speaks about pharmacies and comment on the content. Tools/resources: a Wiki page Duration: 30 minutes

18. POLITICS Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_pharmacy

19. POLITICS Useful Information Online pharmacies are pharmacies that operate over the Internet. While many internet pharmacies sell prescription drugs only with a prescription, some do not require a pre-written prescription. In some countries, this is because prescriptions are not required. Some customers order drugs from such pharmacies to avoid the inconvenience of visiting a doctor or to obtain medications their doctors were unwilling to prescribe. People living in the United States and other countries where prescription medications are very expensive may turn to online pharmacies to save money. This however may lead them to buy fake drugs which may have very serious side effects. The Greek law forbids pharmacies to sell medicines online to prevent such problems and to avoid overmedication or uncontrolled medication without the supervision of a doctor. This should not change in the future, because it contains risks for the public health.

20. POLITICS Activity 6 Learning tasks: Find a Facebook group that discusses about the changes in pharmacies and comment on the opinions presented. Tools/resources: Facebook (www.facebook.com) Duration: 15 minutes

21. POLITICS Facebook group The group can be found herehere

22. POLITICS Useful Information This group is called “Pharmacists without a Pharmacy”. They speak about their right to open a pharmacy in Greece. They have a strong point. They have a degree and they are trying to open a pharmacy to earn a living. However a license costs over 250.000 euro, because the maximum number of pharmacies is reached and the pharmacists who want to go on a pension sell theirs. My opinion is that there has to be a solution to allow them to open pharmacies without having to pay this much and without increasing the total amount of pharmacies. This can only be done by removing the right from the old pharmacies to sell their license and instead returning this to the state. If the number of pharmacies exceeded the maximum then a lot of pharmacies, especially the small new ones and the very old, would not be viable and close.

23. POLITICS Activity 7 Learning tasks: Create a Word Cloud using the text of your comments for your activities. Tools/resources: Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) Duration: 15 minutes

24. POLITICS Word cloud

25. POLITICS Comments on Word cloud The Word Cloud highlights the most common and relevant words on the proposed changes for pharmacies, according to the input from this scenario. These words are: Pharmacies, pharmacist, open, buy, people, health, law, government, sell. The words presented illustate how the pharmacies are characterized by both dimensions, the economic and the social one. We have pharmacists, people and health in one side and in the other side we have money and law/rules. Currently the Greek pharmacies are closer to the first dimension while the proposed changes will lead towards the second.

26. POLITICS Activity 8 Learning tasks: Create a Poster to express your opinion on the proposed changes for the Greek pharmacies and describe it. Tools/resources: Glogster (http://www.glogster.com) Duration: 45 minutes

27. POLITICS Poster http://kgiagiakou.glogster.com/greekpharmacy/

28. POLITICS Comments on Poster My poster shows the difference between a human-centric pharmacy and the commercial pharmacy of the future that they want to implement. On the one hand you can see a photo taken from the birthday of one of my coworkers and on the other hand the photo of a pharmacy in Tokyo. The video about the attack to the Greek pharmacies is also displayed here. I also demonstrate the need for a human-centric pharmacist and the need for a Green/Holistic approach in medicine rather than a chemical one.

29. POLITICS Wrap up – Expression of Personal View/ Opinion Due to the ongoing Greek crisis, Greece has become the experiment lab in Europe. While European legislation and the European court of law dictate that only pharmacists have the right to open pharmacies, the Greek government tries to give the right to huge corporations to open pharmacies in Greece. They don’t pay the their huge debts to the pharmacies, pushing pharmacists to close their pharmacies because they don’t have the money to stay in business. At the same time they try to open the operation hours pushing small one person operated pharmacies to extinction. This is will not open the way for new pharmacists, as people hopes. Instead only the upcoming super- pharmacies will be able to stay alive and will divide the market between them. We already witnessed this phenomenon in Sweden and Turkey and now it’s time for Greece to pay the toll.