There are a few concerns that I- and it seems many other pharmacists share about the self-selection of P-meds. I've covered some of my concerns here, but the tweet chat threw up many others too. Other pharmacists have also shared their concerns, and you can find some of them in the links below:
The Pharmacy Show Blog
Dr A R Cox
James Andrews
Right now I want to look at the evidence that self-selection works. The theory is that allowing patients to choose their own medicines leads to greater adherence. As the patient feels they have more ownership over their healthcare decisions, they might use the drugs more effectively for a better outcome. But is there any cold, hard evidence that this is the case when it comes to over the counter medicines?
As a skeptic, the words "Where's the evidence?" are often found escaping from my mouth. Sometimes the need for evidence is countered by the risk averse pharmacist side of me, where the theoretical likelihood of a risk outweighs the need for evidence. As with all things in healthcare, a balance needs to be taken into account: what are the risks vs what are the benefits? In this case of self selection, I can see there being a real risk of fatalities. Any evidence of benefit to patients needs to be robust in order to outweigh the risks, in my opinion.
So I've made a start by looking at Embase and Medline. I've also had a look at NHS Evidence and have even googled. And I've been able to find very, very little on the subject. I found one Dutch paper about self-selection in the pharmacy, but that has no abstract.
I found this World Self-Medication Industry website which states:
"A study done in the United Kingdom showed that consumers welcome the opportunity to self-select medicines in that country's pharmacy class. Three out of four of the British consumers in the study felt that re-configured pharmacies with easier access to nonprescription medicines was a good idea, half because it would save their own time or that of their doctor, and the remainder because it offered greater choice."But this doesn't appear to be referenced, so I can't find the study to see how reliable it is.
Have I missed anything? If you're aware of any evidence for the efficacy of self-selection of P-meds, please do let me know by dropping me an e-mail at healthydoseofskepticism@gmail.com. I would be particularly interested in any evidence that could be provided by the GPhC, and might drop them a line to see what they have to say on the matter.
In contrast, I stumbled across a study from New Zealand, which concludes that, when purchasing a pharmacy medicine for the first time, in 62.2% of cases the sale was influence by pharmacy staff. This study has its limitations of course, but if true (and from my personal experience of many years of community pharmacy work it would appear about right), it would seem a shame to eliminate this from the medicines buying experience.
There is also some evidence that patients who approach the pharmacy counter with a specific product in mind are given poorer advice than those who ask for a recommendation based on their symptoms- again something I have experienced both as a pharmacist and a customer.
Of course patients can still ask for the expertise of pharmacy staff, but how many of them will know to ask, and how many will simply pick the nearest thing and hope for the best?
I'm going to hopefully write another post about my concerns about how the patient experience will be affected. If you have any thoughts on this, again do get in touch. If you're a customer in a pharmacy, I would love to know whether you think self-selection of Over-The-Counter medicines would be good for you.
