Accelerate Estonia’s project, the aim of which is to bring 24/7 automated pharmacies to the Estonian market, has reached an important milestone! The draft legislation prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs will go through a public consultation round this week and will be submitted to the Estonian government in September of this year.
The main legislative change
The goal of this legislative change is to allow automated pharmacies to enter the market. This will expand regional and 24/7 access to medicines by allowing a single pharmacist to assist patients across the country via video consultations, optimising limited healthcare resources.
The primary legislative change that will enable the solution to enter the market is that self-service pharmacies will be defined as automated structural units of general pharmacies, allowing patients to purchase medicines via an automated robotic pharmacy. This will allow pharmacies to offer their services without the physical presence of a pharmacist on-site, while patients can still be advised through video consultations.
What is the impact?
Automated pharmacies have the potential to reduce the burden on ambulance and ER services, as many nighttime visitors could instead find relief from 24/7 pharmacies. Depending on the scale of implementation, automated pharmacies could save the emergency medical sector between €2.3M and €6.4 million over five years.
With 53% of Estonian pharmacists currently over the age of 50, automated pharmacies can help address this workforce shortage by using video calls to consult people regardless of their location.
Once this innovative solution is successfully integrated into Estonia’s legal framework, it creates a clear regulatory blueprint, opening up new export opportunities for local health-tech companies.
