HEALTH experts are critical of pharmacists still asking their customers to fill out intrusive questionnaires around the dispensing of emergency contraception, when it's no longer a legal requirement, The Guardian has reported.
Prof Safeera Hussainy of Monash University's School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine explained that the form was originally used as a training tool to help pharmacists ask the right questions and familiarise themselves with the medicine, but it has become redundant as familiarity with the "incredibly safe" product increased.
"The form is a discriminatory hangover from a time when stringent checks were in place around reproductive health.
"Asking women to fill out a form now is not okay, it's not mandatory, and it's not a legal requirement," Hussainy stressed.
"Pharmacists can have a conversation with someone instead, just like they do for other medications, and that conversation needs to be had in an inoffensive, non-intrusive way," Hussainy added.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) created the form, and a spokesperson said the "form is not available on PSA resource sites and PSA no longer recommends its use".
The current PSA guidelines advise that pharmacists "do not use a written checklist or form because the patient...can perceive it as a barrier to care".
The Pharmacy Guild spokesperson said a pharmacist is legally responsible for establishing a therapeutic need, and assessing if the medicine is safe and appropriate for the patient.
"To fulfil those legal and professional obligations, the pharmacist is required to ask the patient some questions, but the Guild does not support the use of a questionnaire," the spokesperson concluded. JG
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 19 Sep 23
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 19 Sep 23
