Pharmacy customers over-sharing personal details in public, committee on UTIs hears

Some pharmacy customers are “over-sharing” while revealing highly person details in public, a state parliament committee on UTI antibiotics has heard.

Pharmacists want to skip any trial to go straight to being able to prescribe antibiotics for women with suspected urinary tract infections based solely on symptoms, regardless of GP concerns about patient safety.

Pharmaceutical Society officials also dismissed the Royal Australian College of GPs’ concerns about the risks of overprescribing antibiotics leading to bacterial resistance, as well as concerns about patient privacy when discussing UTIs within earshot of other customers.

About 40 per cent of SA pharmacies do not have private rooms for consultations, state parliament’s committee on access to UTIs treatment was told.

Society state manager Helen Stone said many customers appeared not to worry about privacy when discussing their ailments.

“You would be surprised at the conversations I have had in the middle of a pharmacy, people tend to over-share,” she said.

“People come into pharmacies and talk about bowels and thrush, and show parts of their body you would probably prefer not to see.”

Ms Stone said for conversations about delicate topics, pharmacists without a separate room tend to take customers down the aisle with incontinence products as “no-one hangs around the incontinence aisle”.

“You can be guaranteed a private place and private conversation there,” she said.

Society state president-elect Manya Angley said pharmacists tended to be “creative” when discussing issues such as erectile dysfunction and vaginal thrush, with some using staff break areas or even beauty make-up room if they don’t have a consulting room.

The officials rejected mandating separate rooms, saying an expensive capital investment for relatively few consultations was not practical but that over time, pharmacies would gradually include separate areas with upgrades.

They also urged the committee chair by Labor MP Jayne Stinson to go straight to an implementation phase of pharmacists being allowed to prescribe antibiotics for UTIs, with an oversight committee to check progress, rather than a trial as a trial has been held in Queensland.

“We are really well positioned to do this,” Ms Angley said, adding “we are the medicine experts”.

The officials told the committee such prescribing would include a caveat urging women to see a GP if their symptoms did not clear up within 48 hours.

RACGP spokeswoman Dr Charlotte Hespe blasted the notion of discussing UTIs at a pharmacy counter or in a quiet aisle, saying: “the patient must be seen in a private space” to fully and openly discuss their condition.

She noted more than 40 per cent of UTIs may be treated with methods other than simply prescribing antibiotics, and warned patient safety is at risk from a wrong diagnosis based only on symptoms.

“You need to go through a checklist to ensure it is a UTI and not a sexually transmitted disease, a pelvic infection, an undiagnosed pregnancy, a malignancy — this is why we GPs have done 12 years training,” Dr Hespe said.