On November 22, with the participation of ACHI, within the framework of the XIV All-Russian Congress of Patients, the round table was held on the topic “Responsible self-care in the system of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation.”

ACHI Executive Director Elena Nevolina acted as a moderator and one of the speakers at the event with the topic “Perception of the concept of self-care by healthcare providers: results of the ACHI’s survey 2023.”

Larisa Popovich, Director of the Institute of Health Economics, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Anatoly Stremoukhov, Director of the Institute of Professional Education of the Association of Primary Care Physicians SIRANO, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Elena Volskaya, leading researcher at the National Research Institute of Public Health named after N. A. Semashko of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Igor Stepanov, Chairman of the Council of Public Organizations at Roszdravnadzor in the Yaroslavl Region, Chairman of the Yaroslavl Regional Public Organization of Disabled Persons “Hephaestus”, and other experts presented their reports at the round table.

In her speech, Elena Nevolina noted that self-medication is widespread, as shown by the results of various population surveys. Self-medication and self-care become responsible when the patient/consumer seeks professional help and the first point of contact for qualified care is the pharmacist. Situations when citizens address a pharmacist to recommend a remedy for a minor ailment are very common, and according to the results of a survey of doctors conducted by the ACHI, more than half of them consider such interaction between pharmacists and patients acceptable.

According to Larisa Popovich, self-care is an important component of the resilience of healthcare systems, and its role will only increase. At the Forum of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, which was held in Kyrgyzstan in November of this year, WHO representatives announced the need for more active implementation of pharmaceutical care.

Anatoly Stremoukhov spoke about the information and educational component of the responsible self-care concept, information and educational technologies of the OSL concept. Medical, pharmaceutical, professional associations should become the main providers of correct information on maintaining health, ways to combat diseases and responsible self-treatment with the use of over-the-counter drugs and other consumer health products. The customers of such information should be patient organizations, with the coordinating role of the All-Russian Patient Union.

Among the measures to develop pharmaceutical care and counseling the experts mentioned the introduction of a system for recording consultations, a decision on the source of compensation for pharmaceutical counseling services, the development of guidelines on the procedure for carrying out consultations, etc.

The results of the round table will be included in the Congress’ resolution, which will be submitted for consideration to the relevant government bodies.