UTI decision bad for women's health
Women will be put at harm by the state government's decision to allow pharmacists to continue prescribing antibiotics for urinary tract infections without any medical oversight.
The Queensland Government has made a bad decision for Queensland women’s health by allowing pharmacists to diagnose urinary tract infections (UTIs) and sell antibiotics without a doctor’s prescription.
“Every medical group in Queensland opposes this plan. The Commonwealth opposes this plan. The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA), which represents pharmacists not pharmacy owners, opposes this plan,” AMA Queensland President Dr Maria Boulton said.
“Health Minister Yvette D’Ath says this decision was based on an evaluation report of a pilot program that began in 2020.
“In fact, the evaluation report shows that 65 per cent of women who took part in the pilot were never followed up with. Of those who were contacted, more than 300 said they had sought further assessment and treatment. Four ended up in emergency departments.
“That is even more than the cases we discovered after surveying Queensland doctors in March about the UTI trial, when we found 240 cases of complications from this trial and nine hospitalisations.
“The ‘satisfaction rate’ is based on just 68 women who filled out an online survey sent to them by the pharmacist who provided their service.
“Virtually every woman under this scheme was sold antibiotics, whether she needed them or not. One in two pharmacists said they would have found it difficult to ask women for the $19.95 service fee without also selling them antibiotics.
“Pharmacists themselves are unwilling to take part - 817 pharmacies enrolled, but more than one-third reported offering no services at all during the 18-month trial, and only five provided more than 100 services.
“Our argument is not with pharmacists or pharmacy owners. It is with the Health Minister, who withheld the evaluation report for months despite our repeated Right To Information applications, and has now decided not just to make the UTI pilot permanent, but to expand this to at least 23 more serious medical conditions across North Queensland.”
The Queensland Government paid QUT to develop, implement and evaluate the UTI pilot, which allowed pharmacists to undertake two hours of online training before diagnosing and selling antibiotics to women with potential UTIs.
“This 18-month pilot was a significant opportunity to collect high-quality data about patient safety. However, this report has no scientific rigour and gives us no confidence that the UTI scheme is safe for patients,” Dr Boulton said.
“This has been touted as a way to make healthcare more accessible after hours and in rural and regional areas, yet the report shows that 85 per cent of services were delivered in major cities and large regional towns, and most were accessed Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm.
“There are good reasons why doctors prescribe and pharmacists dispense. It ensures that antibiotics and other medications are only given when absolutely necessary, without any financial incentive.
“The PSA made that clear in its White Paper last month, where it calls for separation of prescribing and dispensing in the UTI pilot and similar proposals.”
The AMA Queensland North Queensland Pharmacy Trial survey is available here
The PSA White Paper is available here