Evaluation of the current status of the value- added pharmacy services and pharmacists’ attitude in Bulgaria Stefan Balkanski 1 , Joana Simeonova 2 , Ivan Gitev 1 , Ilko Getov 1,3 1 Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union, 36 Dragan Tsankov blvd., ofce B 602, foor 6, Sofa 1040, Bulgaria 2 Faculty of Pharmacy, Мedical University – Pleven, 1 st Sveti Kliment Ohridski Street, Pleven 5800, Bulgaria 3 Faculty of Pharmacy, Мedical University – Sofa, 2 nd Dunav Street, Sofa 1000, Bulgaria Corresponding author: Stefan Balkanski (st.balkanski@gmail.com) Received 25 May 2019  ♦  Accepted 1 July 2019  ♦  Published 23 July 2019 Citation: Balkanski S, Simeonova J, Gitev I, Getov I (2019) Evaluation of the current status of the value-added pharmacy services and pharmacists’ attitude in Bulgaria. Pharmacia 66(2): 79–83. https://doi.org/10.3897/pharmacia.66.e36530 Abstract Value-added pharmacy services (VAPS) are additional services to the traditional pharmacy activities, which do not include dispensing of medicinal products and professional consultation. Over 51% of the community pharmacies in Bulgaria ofer VAPS but mainly mea- suring of blood pressure (67.4%) and blood glucose (12.9%). About 60% of community pharmacists in the country are willing to per- form other VAPS. About 70% of them believe that patients would rate VAPS as useful. Younger pharmacists with professional experi- ence less than 5 years (90.9%) tend to believe that VAPS would be positively rated by their patients. Te study shows that VAPS diferent from consultation and dispensing of medicinal products have a potential for development in the community pharmacies in Bulgaria. Keywords Value-added pharmacy services, pharmacists, community pharmacy, patient benefts Introduction According to the Law for medicinal products in human medicine “a pharmacy is a health establishment in which the following activities are taking place: storage, preparation, packaging, control, consultations, dispensing with or without medical prescription of medicinal products authorized for use in the Republic of Bulgaria, of medical devices, as well as of food supplements, of cosmetic and sanitary products on a list specifed by the Minister of Health” (Te Drug Act 2007). In recent years, in numerous countries around the world, growth in the volume of the pharmacy services is reported. Increasing importance is placed on the pro- fessional advice and the additional services ofered in the pharmacies (McDonald et al. 2010; Scott et al. 2007; Cooksey et al. 2002). A major aim of most professional pharmaceutical or- ganizations is to change the attitude of the patients, the health insurance funds and the pharmacists themselves toward the pharmacy services ofered in the pharmacy (Caamaño et al. 2008). Te purpose is to create in the so- ciety an image of the pharmacist as a healthcare specialist, ofering professional pharmaceutical services and consul- tation, which extends far beyond the current, more limit- ed frameworks on dispensing medicinal products, medi- cal products and food supplements (Harrison et al. 2012). Copyright Balkanski S et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Pharmacia 66(2): 79–83 DOI 10.3897/pharmacia.66.e36530 Research Article