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The province of Malaga will have 50 new pharmacies once the tender of the ministry of health and consumer affairs of the Andalusian regional government announced in December 2024 is resolved and whose deadline for applications ended a few days ago.
This is a significant percentage (40 per cent) of the 122 licences to open pharmacies that have been called for in the whole of the region. As Francisco Criado, president of the Malaga college of pharmacists, explains, when the population is compared with the number of pharmacies and it is determined that there is a need for more pharmacies to guarantee good access to treatment and health for citizens, a call for tenders is issued.
And he adds that of the 122 to be opened in Andalucía, 50 of them will be in the province of Malaga because this is the province with the most dynamic demographic evolution. Thus, for example, he points out that in Cordoba there are no licences on offer and that in Jaén there is only one, in Martos. Meanwhile, in Seville there are 23, in Granada 20, in Almeria 17, six in Huelva and five in Cadiz.
Within the province of Malaga, there are no plans to open a new chemist's in the city. Most of them will be located on the Costa del Sol, which is where the population is growing the most.
Marbella will be the Malaga locality with the highest number of pharmacies offered, with a total of ten; followed by Fuengirola, with seven; another six new ones will be opened in Mijas; while Estepona will have four, the same number as Alhaurín de la Torre. Benalmádena, Cártama and Rincón will have three more each; Torrox, Vélez-Málaga and Manilva will have two new pharmacies each; while Alhaurín el Grande, Benahavís, Casares and Coín will have one more.
In accordance with the Andalusian pharmacy law, which dates back to 2008, several sources of information are taken into account to measure demographics: the legal population, based on the census (padrón); the actual population, including residents not registered on the census, by means of a certificate issued by the town hall; and the seasonal population, in the case of areas with a tourist influx, by counting the number of places in tourist accommodation.
2010 was the last tender
No pharmacies have been allocated since then. But movement in the sector has been based on relocations or sales and purchases.
Since the entry into force of the Andalusian pharmacy law, the only public tender for the allocation of pharmacies took place in 2010. But this does not mean that there is no movement in the sector. As Criado explains, once a licence has been obtained by public tender, after a period of three years it can be transferred - subject to approval by the administration - and after a decade it can be sold. So the way to access the pharmacy is either through a public tender for licences - such as the one that has just closed - or through purchase, like any other business.
Under the tender recently launched by the Junta de Andalucía, there are three phases in the participation procedure. In the first phase, which awards up to 50 per cent of all licences, only pharmacists who already own an office open to the public in Andalusian municipalities or isolated population centres of less than a thousand inhabitants can participate, provided that they have maintained ownership of that establishment for at least ten years. The second phase is open to pharmacists who are not owners or co-owners of a pharmacy. The third phase is open to all other pharmacists.
3 months
The successful bidders have three months to submit the premises in which they will establish their pharmacy. And, once approved, they have another six months to open the pharmacy.
What those applying to take over a pharmacy - which is for life, or until it is sold - face is a merit-based competition in which their training and experience are assessed. Once this is resolved, those awarded the licence have three months to present the premises in which they intend to open the business, which must comply with the regulations, the most important of which is that the nearest pharmacy must be at least 250 metres away. Once this procedure has been passed, there is a period of another six months for the actual opening of the pharmacy. Thus, a year can easily elapse between the call for tender and the start-up of the new medicine dispensers.
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