Bolman Deal

PRIVATIZATION

In 1990, after the fall of the communism public sector was privatized and "Cefarm" started to sell pharmacies into private hands and many pharmacists could at last realise their dreams and owe their own pharmacy. They knew that if they want to regain the prestige, gain customers and be able to compete, they have to start reorganisation and in a very short time they have to change from a public sector professionals to the private sector managers. Because all their professional life they had been working in a communistic country, where everything was state-owned and centrally managed and nobody has an experience in management of a private pharmacy, they had to learn everything from the scratch and most changes and reorganisations after the sector privatisation, particularly in the first phase were done instinctively. They suddenly entered the unknown world of business, where the essential values are competition and the need to make a profit. The result has been very mixed. Some pharmacies survived, but a lot of them bankrupted, defeated by the competition of supermarkets and chains of highly profit oriented pharmacies. The prestige of the profession although increased is still not as high as it is in developed countries.

What went wrong?

What can be still done now to improve financial position and prestige of pharmacists in Poland?

PRIVATIZATION

In 1990, after the fall of the communism public sector was privatized and "Cefarm" started to sell pharmacies into private hands and many pharmacists could at last realise their dreams and owe their own pharmacy. They knew that if they want to regain the prestige, gain customers and be able to compete, they have to start reorganisation and in a very short time they have to change from a public sector professionals to the private sector managers. Because all their professional life they had been working in a communistic country, where everything was state-owned and centrally managed and nobody has an experience in management of a private pharmacy, they had to learn everything from the scratch and most changes and reorganisations after the sector privatisation, particularly in the first phase were done instinctively. They suddenly entered the unknown world of business, where the essential values are competition and the need to make a profit. The result has been very mixed. Some pharmacies survived, but a lot of them bankrupted, defeated by the competition of supermarkets and chains of highly profit oriented pharmacies. The prestige of the profession although increased is still not as high as it is in developed countries.

What went wrong?

What can be still done now to improve financial position and prestige