- We think this pilot makes sense, but our recommendation to pharmacists is clear. In the case of a minor patient, the consent of the legal guardian should be required," Marek Tomkow, president of the Supreme Pharmaceutical Chamber, comments in an interview with Medexpress, referring to the pilot's assumptions regarding pharmacist services for reproductive health. The Health Ministry included, among other things, that emergency contraception would be dispensed without the consent and knowledge of a legal guardian to women who are at least 15 years old.
Marek Tomkow, president of NRA: We will not bring the risk of lawsuits to pharmacists
Published May 6, 2024 13:00
- While it makes a lot of sense to introduce a pilot that allows access to day-after contraception, pushing by force a solution in which a pharmacist will be able to issue such a prescription without the consent of a guardian for a minor patient is a misguided solution," says Marek Tomkow, stressing that this is not his personal opinion, but a position adopted unanimously by the Supreme Pharmaceutical Council. The same opinion is held by the self-governments of other medical professions, including doctors, nurses and laboratory diagnosticians, as well as the Ombudsman.
In the opinion of the pharmacy self-government, the ministry contradicts itself, in one place writing about the patient, i.e. the person to whom the service is provided, and on the other claiming that there is no question of providing services.
- For a pharmacist, a patient is a patient, and if we have to determine the indications or contraindications to administer a drug based on health risks, then for us it is a health service, no matter what it is called in the pilot. - says Marek Tomkow
As the president of the NRA emphasizes, this position is not based on political or religious beliefs, but on the law in force in Poland.
- If today a pharmacist does not have the right without the consent of a legal guardian to weigh such a 15-year-old patient, measure her blood pressure, check her sugar level, then under the regulation he should have the right to prescribe and administer medication to her? The same activity at a doctor's office is a service that requires the legal guardian's consent. Suddenly this 15-year-old is no longer a patient? Does the Patients' Rights Act cease to apply? This is a surprising position," says the chairman.
Recall, the pilot began on May 1. Starting May 2, pharmacies can submit applications to participate in the program. These will be processed in about a week. The first packs of emergency contraception will therefore not be able to be dispensed under the pilot until mid-May at the earliest.
