The General Council of Pharmaceutical Colleges has expressed its support for the request made by the Scientific Society of Public Health Pharmacists to the Ministry of Health to implement a Public Health specialty aimed at pharmacists, which would be obtained through the FIR residency system.
According to the General Council, the implementation of this specialty would "fully" strengthen Public Health, thanks to its multidisciplinary approach and the incorporation of more health profiles. In coherence with this, the collegiate organization has adopted and supported the arguments defended by the Scientific Society of Public Health Pharmacists in its proposal.
The request, which already has the formal endorsement of the required number of Health Councils as per the regulations, complies with the mandate of Law 33/2011, General Public Health, which 15 years ago recognized the convenience of extending specialization in Public Health to other health professions, beyond medicine.
Both entities maintain that the new specialty would guarantee a homogeneous training for pharmacists who direct their career towards Public Health and would allow for the recognition of the work of more than 1,500 professionals currently holding technical positions in health services, as well as those working in official laboratories and in state agencies such as the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS) and the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN).
The initiative also complies with the requirements of Royal Decree 589/2022, which stipulates that, for the creation of a new specialty, at least 50 percent of its competencies must be exclusive.
Regarding the design of the training program, the scientific society proposes a duration of four years, developed in multiprofessional teaching units of Public Health.
After the submission of the documentation to request the new title of specialist in Public Health, the General Directorate of Professional Regulation of the Ministry of Health must gather, before issuing a resolution, the reports from the involved professional colleges, the National Council of Specialties in Health Sciences, the Human Resources Commission of the National Health System, and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Universities, whose opinion will be binding.