Summer: collection of medicines for the elderly and people in difficulty

Rome, July 24 (AdnKronos Health) – Helping people in poverty and, in particular, those who, because of the summer heat, are experiencing particularly difficult situations in the purchase of medicines. "Among these, especially the elderly, of whom 510 thousands live in absolute poverty". The Fondazione Banco Farmaceutico onlus and the Italian Red Cross have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to consolidate the collaboration, already successfully tested at the local level, in the fight against sanitary poverty. strengthen all these interventions on the territory necessary to help people in poverty. The problem also affects older people who, according to the criteria of the ISTAT, are not poor: 39.8% had to give up, at least sometimes during the year, to buy drugs for economic reasons, while in 4 out of 10 cases had to give up even medical examinations, therapies or exams. That is why Banco Farmaceutico will collect – through the system of corporate donations – medicines (supplements, moisturizers, antiseptics, syrups and cough expectorants) that the Cree, thanks to the capillarity of facilities and activities (more than 1000 locations and over 160,000 volunteers) in the national territory, will be able to reach all people in need. In 2017, Banco Farmaceutico collected 1,350,164 medicines, for an economic value of 11,188,754 euros. With donations of medicines – thanks to more than 14,000 volunteers, 3,851 pharmacies and 25 pharmaceutical companies – more than 578,000 people in need were helped, helped by 1,722 charities affiliated to Fondazione Banco Farmaceutico onlus. In 18 years of activity, Banco Farmaceutico has collected and donated more than 10.4 million drug packages, for an economic value of more than 80.4 million euros. These are the figures published during the presentation of the Banco Farmaceutico 2017 pharmaceutical report, organized by the Italian Red Cross and the signing of the protocol of agreement, in the presence of Francesco Rocca, President of the Italian Red Cross and the International Federation of Enterprises. of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and Filippo Ciantia, Managing Director of Banco Farmaceutico. "Everyday actions, for those who do not have anything are not discounted.Most of us, for example, reach the workplace by car, moped riders or public transport, those who are poor, walk miles, because, quite simply, he has to reach the tables or dormitories of the welfare organizations on which he counts.He only walks miles to eat and sleep, is obliged to do so. under the hot sun, "said Sergio Daniotti, president of the Fondazione Banco Farmaceutico onlus," For years the Cr oce Rossa Committees have been working with Banco Farmaceutico locally, reaching out to many people in difficulty. That's why starting this partnership across the country is a very important step to be ever more incisive in our daily struggle against poverty, isolation and all the conditions of vulnerability. Because we always tend to underestimate the level of poverty in Italy and Europe ", concluded Francesco Rocca, President of Cri, recalling that 18 million people in Italy are at risk of poverty or exclusion social.