About the Lekarna Ljubljana pharmacy
Javni zavod Lekarna Ljubljana is the largest public pharmacy institute in Slovenia. It was founded by the City Municipality of Ljubljana. Pursuant to the Pharmacy Practice Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia No 85/16), the pharmacy operates as a public service providing permanent and uninterrupted care for the population and healthcare providers with medicinal products and the pharmaceutical treatment of patients.
Besides dispensing prescription and over-the-counter medicines, the pharmacy’s activities also include the preparation of extemporaneous medicines in pharmacies, the production of galenic medicines, the monitoring of data and the reporting of adverse drug reactions. The Lekarna Ljubljana pharmacy also performs other activities, including the supply of other treatment support and human health maintenance products: medical devices, foods for special medical purposes, foodstuffs for particular nutritional use, food supplements, veterinary products, cosmetics and other products intended for human care and protection, and the extemporaneous production of homoeopathic medicinal products.
Throughout its years of operation, the Lekarna Ljubljana pharmacy follows its mission and has created a trustworthy environment in units where ensuring a high quality, efficient and continuous supply of medicines and other products to support treatment and preserve health, and advises on their safe, correct and effective use. It has formed into a modern pharmacy network over the past two decades with a clear vision of constant progress and the development of pharmacy activity.
As part of the implementation of pharmaceutical treatment services, the pharmacy professionals advise patients on a healthy lifestyle, help them break bad habits and perform different measurements. The drug use review helps increase the effectiveness of drug treatment and improve the quality of life. Lekarna Ljubljana was the first in Slovenia to develop a telepharmacy service in 2020, a way of consulting remotely with the help of modern telecommunications technologies, enabling customers to obtain professional advice from Masters of Pharmacy in the comfort of their home. The Lekarna Ljubljana pharmacy continues to follow the trends in the field of the digitalisation and informatization of operations and the use of new technologies.
Lekarna Ljubljana has 54 pharmacy units. It supplies medicines and other products for the preservation of health and wellbeing to residents of the City Municipality of Ljubljana and the inhabitants of 19 surrounding municipalities: Bloke, Borovnica, Brezovica, Cerknica, Cerkno, Grosuplje, Horjul, Idrija, Ivančna Gorica, Log - Dragomer, Logatec, Loška dolina, Lukovica, Medvode, Škofljica, Trzin, Velike Lašče, Videm – Dobrepolje and Vrhnika. It supplies the entire Slovenia with certain products via the online pharmacy. It has expanded its network of pharmacies over the past decade, especially to smaller and more remote areas, and has technologically modernised its units, including implementing pharmacy robots.
The production activity of Lekarna Ljubljana has been carried out in the galenic laboratory over the past decade, while the control analytical laboratory is responsible for quality control. The Galenic laboratory of Lekarna Ljubljana, which produces over 130 products, including five with a marketing authorisation, is the largest galenic laboratory in the country and the only lab with a certificate of good manufacturing practice for medicinal products (EU GMP).
Since 1995, Lekarna Ljubljana has been a teaching institution for secondary school students, pharmaceutical technicians and students of pharmacy. It ensures regular employee education, the development of competencies and safe working conditions. It obtained the Basic Family-Friendly Company certificate in 2017. Since 2013, the excellence of the operation of Lekarna Ljubljana has been confirmed by the ISO 9001 quality certificate. Lekarna Ljubljana also carries out scientific research in the field of pharmacy activity.
It developed a loyalty program in 2009 for more efficient and direct communication with customers, which today brings together more than 189,000 users. In order to improve the organization of the supply of medicinal products, medical devices and other products and improve conditions of operations, the company established the wholesale drugstore LL Grosist in the same year.
The joint services covering the field of expertise, commercial, administrative legal affairs and investment, economics and finance, human resources and the coordination of strategic activities, IT and modern technologies, strategic marketing and public relations, and the management of the institute are grouped at the headquarters of Lekarna Ljubljana.
One of the fundamental values of Lekarna Ljubljana is social responsibility. Caring for the health of people and vulnerable groups is reflected in a number of free activities – from organizing professional lectures and publishing the magazine Zdravo with professional articles and tips for maintaining health, to organizing the Health Festival. Lekarna Ljubljana is the founder and main donor of the Ljubhospic House, the only stationary hospice in Slovenia that provides free care to the terminally ill. It also founded the Lekarna Ljubljana publishing house in 2016 for publishing books to promote healthcare and a healthy lifestyle.
At the end of 2021, 385 persons were employed in Lekarna Ljubljana. Pharmacy professionals processed 2.98 million prescriptions in 2021 and the operating revenues amounted to 167.7 million EUR.
