Perceptions of social actors on Pharmaceutical Assistance in primary care: the gap of pharmaceutical care

ABSTRACT The objective of this work was to identify historical landmarks related to Pharmaceutical Assistance in primary care and to understand the perceptions of actors involved in the process of including pharmaceutical care. This is a qualitative exploratory study carried out through the analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews with actors involved in national and district management. The documents an evolution towards the inclusion of the pharmacist in the primary care process by means of laws, reports or projects publication. The speeches were divided into categories of analysis, from which ‘word clouds’ were also elaborated. Respondents agreed that pharmaceutical care is not being properly evaluated and stressed that greater focus is needed on measuring the scope of the processes developed in the services offered for the users’ quality of life.