According to Emol, the Chilean College of Pharmacists and Biochemists and Health Minister May Chomali expressed reservations about a bill that would allow some pharmacies to operate without a pharmacist as technical director. Both warn of risks to patient safety.
The initiative is being promoted by Deputy Diego Vergara (Republican Party) alongside five other lawmakers. It proposes amending the Health Code to expand who can serve as a pharmacy's technical director, a position that currently requires a pharmacist.
The authors argue that the cost of hiring a pharmacist makes it difficult to open pharmacies, particularly in remote areas. The change seeks to facilitate the opening of pharmacies in rural communities or areas with limited access to medicines, so people do not have to travel long distances.
The professional association questioned the approach of lowering professional requirements. It warned that the measure could weaken specialist oversight of dispensing, meaning the provision of medicines to patients with guidance on their use, and of their storage.
For the College, technical management is not a dispensable cost because it involves health responsibilities that require specialized training. It added that the skills of technicians, assistants and other workers do not replace a pharmacist's training or authority.
The organization also questioned whether the bill would lower prices or bring pharmacies to places that currently lack them. In its view, reducing operating costs does not guarantee that those savings will reach consumers. "A pharmacy is not just a commercial establishment: it is a health center," the organization said, also warning about illegal sales and counterfeit medicines.
Minister Chomali joined the criticism. "I find a bill of that kind problematic, because a pharmacy, to be useful, has to offer all types of medicines, and there are some medicines that, by law, can only be sold by pharmacists," she said. She added that otherwise, the public could be put at risk.
Emol's report does not specify who could serve as technical director under the bill or what stage it has reached in the legislative process.
The College asked Vergara and the other authors to withdraw the initiative in its current form and called on the Health Committee of the Chamber of Deputies to reject it. It asked the Ministry of Health to strengthen mobile and community pharmacies, facilitate the presence of pharmacists in remote areas and expand the intermediary role of the National Health Services System's Central Supply Agency (Cenabast) to make medicines cheaper.
