Domingo, the pharmacist who ‘cures the soul’ in Los Pajaritos: “Health depends more on the postal code than on the genetic”

Domingo Ortega has it clear. “People’s health depends more on their zip code than genetics.” For this reason, this pharmacist decided that the best place to carry out his work was the Sevillian neighborhood of Los Pajaritos, one of the most disadvantaged areas in Spain. Here, in collaboration with other colleagues, social agents and hand in hand with Cáritas, keeps track of the health of neighbors. “The pharmacist is no longer a simple medicine dispenser, he is the reference health worker, the one who is at street level, always open and available. It is something that we have to take advantage of” he tells NIUS. In this way, this team of volunteers, through small interviews, can find out what pathologies they suffer from, if they are well controlled, if they follow their treatments correctly or if they have difficulties to pay for them. “It is about knowing the person, knowing their circumstances and advising them so that they obtain the best health results.” A job, he says, rewarding. “It is very satisfying because they are very grateful. They are people who, in general, find little social support,” he admits. Diabetes in young people, drug addiction and mental disorders This is the case of Manuel, a young diabetic street vendor. He barely has enough to buy eggs , potatoes and rice. “You cannot ask this patient to follow a healthy diet because he has no means. He eats what is cheapest,” he says. Or María de Mar, polydrug addict with HIV, who systematically goes for ibuprofen. It is the only thing, he says, that takes away the pain when he doesn’t take drugs. “Under normal conditions, I would tell him that it can damage the kidney but you have to understand his circumstances. This puts you on your feet in reality,” he says. and a context that Domingo is aware of. “The pharmacy is either social or it is not, and our future lies in community work,” he says. His initiative in what is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Spain has earned him the maximum Recognition of the I Farmacé Awards pharmacists and ODS of the General Council of Official Colleges of Pharmacists. “We have a population that is going to be increasingly older, polymedicated and with multiple pathologies. There will be a lack of hands to attend to it, ”he defends. A scenario in which pharmacies have to enhance their more social profile. The pandemic has made community work visible The pandemic has served, precisely, to make this role of the profession visible. “The green light never went out,” recalls Ana López-Casero, coordinator of the Social Strategy of the General Council of Official Associations of Pharmacists. “The months of confinement have helped us to value it. We dispense what I call medicines for the soul: empathy, solidarity or accompaniment, ”she explains to NIUS. The pharmacy is always there. “It is the armed arm of the public health system for the citizen. Open 24 hours, 365 days a year”, she acknowledges. “There is no network of pharmacies like the one in Spain and we have to take advantage of it.” The figures, she says, corroborate it: 75 percent of the 22,000 that exist in our country are outside provincial capitals. 2,000 in towns with a thousand inhabitants and a thousand in those that do not exceed 500. It is difficult not to have a pharmacy at hand. Early detection of unwanted loneliness or gender-based violence “It is a place where everyone goes and in the end they establishes a relationship of trust that allows the professional to help not only from a physical point of view, but also socially and mentally”, says López Casero. In this sense, pharmacies serve as a sensor to detect, for example, cases of gender violence or unwanted loneliness. “They can detect it early and refer it to the authorities. It is important for women to feel that the pharmacy is a safe place to go for help. In the same way, we can detect if there are older people who do not come to collect their medications and that may be an indication that there is a problem, “he says. This and other aspects will be discussed at the 22nd National Pharmaceutical Congress and the 80th International Congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation, which is held in Seville from September 18 to 22 and will feature more than 5,000 professionals from the sector. A meeting under the slogan ‘The Pharmacy, united in the recovery of health care’, which wants to claim the important role of these professionals in our day to day.