Pharmacists are being forced to defend plans to offer patients who access emergency contraception with advice about future options as part of a trial, over a misinterpretation of what "counselling" means in pharmacy.
A report published across a number of News Corp titles on Sat sparked controversy on social media with Victorian State Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Gabrielle Williams, describing it as pushing a "not-so-subtle pro-life agenda", to which others said "counselling assumes I'm doing something wrong".
Study lead, Monash University Chair of General Practice, Professor Danielle Mazza, told The Guardian that the article had misinterpreted the focus of the research.
"The perception was that this trial would put an additional barrier up for women at the time when they were feeling stressed," she said.
"What the trial is actually doing is training pharmacists to be able to offer optional services to improve women's understanding of the contraceptive options available to them."
Responding to criticism of the trial from Williams, Pharmacy Guild of Australia Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, said "the term 'counselling' means something very different in this context of imparting medicines informations and awareness for patients making their own informed choice".
"As a pharmacist I'm not part of a 'not-so-subtle pro-life agenda', I'm pro-patient choice," he said.
Tassone told Pharmacy Daily that the initial reports about pharmacists providing counselling had been misunderstood by readers, with many feeling it was inappropriate.
"In the context of a pharmacist's practice, 'counselling' refers to the provision of medicines information and other advice to suit the needs and enquiries of the patient," he said.
"Pharmacists have been entrusted to provide emergency contraception without a prescription for over a decade and have done so by following a protocol that is underpinned by professional guidelines to ensure it is done so safely and appropriately for patients.
"Like many of my pharmacist colleagues I imagine I've lost count of the times I've spoken with a patient and they weren't aware of other contraceptive options, the timeframe that emergency contraception is effective and what actions to take should certain adverse effects occur."
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