Definition: Pharmacist

Category: Health

The definition of "pharmacist" varies in the Member States. They are as follows:
BELGIUM:
Persons with a diploma of pharmacist.
DENMARK:
/
GERMANY:
Education completed as pharmacist and official diploma (Abgeschlossene Ausbildung als Apotheker und Approbation).
GREECE:
Under Greek legislation, a pharmacist is a person who is qualified as a pharmacist (university degree in dentistry).  With this qualification he is authorized to work in a pharmacy, or in pharmaceutical industry, research, etc.
SPAIN:
Figures concerns all persons covered with an university degree of pharmacist and registered with the Colegio Profesional de Farmacéuticos. They include both pharmacists who are practising their profession and those who are registered but not practising.
FRANCE:
/
IRELAND:
Person whose name is entered on the Register of the Pharmaceutical Chemists for Ireland.
ITALY:
A) Pharmacists entitled to practise:
Data are available from FOFI (the National Federation of Pharmaceutical Registers) and, like physicians, relate to individuals who, having graduated as pharmacists and received the authority to practise, have been entered in a Provincial Pharmaceutical Register and by that fact acquired the right to practise.
B) Pharmacists practising in public and private hospitals:
Data (both at national and at regional level) are available from ISTAT and Ministry of Health.
C) Pharmacists practising in the Public National Health System:
Data (both at national and at regional level) are available from the Ministry of Health.
LUXEMBOURG:
Professional having qualification and authorization by the Minister of Health to practise pharmacy.
NETHERLANDS:
Pharmacists are university graduates who, having passed a qualifying examination are legally authorized to practise pharmaceutics.  Before setting up in a pharmacy, they have been entered in the register which the Pharmaceutical Inspector of Public Health keeps of all established pharmacists, physicians with pharmacies, assistant pharmacists and pharmaceutical assistants. Not entered in the register, and therefore not included in the figures are :
- pharmaceutical assistants;
- pharmacists and physicians with pharmacies on the payroll of the Armed forces,
- pharmacists employed in the pharmaceutical industry, wholesale trade or research institute,
- pharmacists employed in the civil service, at universities, etc.
Druggists (drogisten) who are allowed to sell a limited number of pharmaceutical specialities and preparations, which may be sold without prescription and are not exclusively reserved for pharmacies or veterinarians, are not included either.
PORTUGAL:
A pharmacist prepares, holds and distributes medicines for human or veterinary use or other products for medical, hygienic or prophylactic purposes, and carries out clinical or other analyses; prepares, or directs the preparation of, medicines prescribed by a physician, to established formulae or from pharmacopoeia; handles toxic and other substances for medicinal, domestic, industrial or agricultural purposes and dispenses them in accordance with the law; carries out physical and chemical analyses and pharmacological trials to establish and verify the purity and activity of raw materials and medicines; periodically examines medicines not prepared in his or her pharmacy to certify their condition and conservation; carries out analyses for toxicological, hydrological, food science, industrial or chemical purposes; prepares and supplies to the public hygiene products, prophylactics, dietary products, cosmetics, pesticides, pharmaceutics, diagnostic products, optical or auditory appliances and general prostheses; provides information and advice on precautions to be taken in using medicines, particularly as regards their effects, toxicity, interactions and incompatibilities; and issues advice on public health care precautions  (National Classification of Occupations - 1994 version).
UNITED KINGDOM:
Community pharmacists:
For Great Britain (England, Wales, Scotland) - a pharmacist who is a registered member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and for whom community pharmacy is a principal occupation. For N Ireland -  known as a pharmacy contractor and is a person with who N Ireland has made arrangements for the provision of pharmaceutical services in respect of the supply of drugs, appliances and chemical reagents.  They do not include pharmacists who provide pharmaceutical services on behalf of another body, for example, Boots pharmacists.
Hospital pharmacists:
Hospital pharmacists are excluded from the United Kingdom pharmacy figures. At September 1991 there were about 4 260 whole-time equivalent (wte) qualified hospital pharmacists in the United Kingdom (about 3 240 wte in England, 270 wte in Wales, 470 wte in Scotland and 290 wte in Northern Ireland). At September 1994 the whol equivalent number of qualified hospitals pharmacists in the United Kingdom were 4 360. (this was made up of about  3420 wte in England, 270 wte in Wales, 520 wte in Scotland and 150 wte in Northern Ireland). This information is taken from the Department of Health Non-Medical Workforce Census, the Welsh Office, Scottish Office and the DHSS Northern Ireland.
AUSTRIA:
General definition of pharmacist: number of pharmacists self-employed or employed by others.
Field covered by the statistics: the data exclude full-time salaried pharmacists working in hospitals and working abroad but include foreign pharmacists licensed to practice. 
Data concerns pharmacists in activity (including those working in a pharmacy but excludes those working in pharmaceutical industry, administration, research,...).
FINLAND:
Authorised dispensers (both head dispensers and dispensers, working aged).
SWEDEN:
/
ICELAND:
Field covered by the statistics: the data covers the number of active pharmacists both self-employed and employed.
Included: 
- active pharmacists (cand.pharm. involving 5 year university education)
- active assistant pharmacists (exam.pharmacists with 3 years of university education;
- active proprietary pharmacists (pharmacists who own and run pharmacies).
NORWAY:
/
SWITZERLAND:
/