What's behind the pharmacy counter at the Olympic Games?
A pharmacy run by 50 volunteer pharmacists is part of a 24/7 polyclinic at the Paris 2024 Olympic Village, home to an estimated 23,500 athletes and staff this summer.
After Great Britain finished seventh in the Olympics medals table with fourteen gold medals, more sporting drama will commence on August 28 when the Paralympics begins.
As the UK hopes for another haul, the Paralympians will be staying at the 54-hectare Olympic Village during their stay – an area equivalent to 75 football pitches.
Built across three communes of Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen and L'Île Saint-Denis, the Village is within a 10km distance to 80% of the venues where the athletes will be competing.
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Aside from the athletes, there are thousands of staff helping to make the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics successful, and pharmacists are one of the important teams working behind the scenes in Paris this summer.
“Same” as other pharmacies
Based in a 3,500m² polyclinic in the Village, an Olympics insider told C+D last week (August 15) that the pharmacy has 20 pharmacists and 30 pharmacy technicians volunteering in it over the period of the polyclinic’s operation.
It will serve an estimated 23,500 athletes and staff across the Olympics and Paralympics and the pharmacy “operates in the same way” as other pharmacies, with prescription medication “required from a Paris 2024 or delegation physician”.
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The volunteer pharmacists and pharmacy technicians also work outside the Village when needed at medical stations in competition and training venues in Paris.
The pharmacy team is half the size it was during the London 2012 Olympics, as C+D interviewed London 2012’s pharmacy clinical lead Mark Stuart twelve years ago and he revealed 100 volunteers were chosen out of 1,400 applicants.
The polyclinic is open 24/7 to serve the “medical needs of resident athletes and delegation staff” and alongside the pharmacy it includes “a blood sampling room, a recovery area with 18 cold baths, an emergency department and areas for physiotherapy, chiropody, dermatology, gynaecology, cardiology and ophthalmology”.
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Paris 2024 are funding the polyclinic but all “the services are provided by the public health system” as they estimate “700” people will visit the clinic every day.
Once the games is over, the Village will “be transformed into 2,800 new homes” for 6,000 people by 2025.
