More than half of pharmacy customers think pharmacies should employ a natural medicine practitioner with many feeling pharmacists are ill-equipped to counsel them about complementary medicines, a new survey reveals.
The survey, published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, found that consumers more often turn to doctors, friends and family, naturopaths, health food staff and pharmacy assistants for complementary medicines advice than pharmacists.
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The study`s authors say that while customers want more engagement with pharmacists regarding CM issues, some currently feel that pharmacists are ill-equipped to counsel them on the medicines.
"This correlates with pharmacists` own discomfort dealing with CM queries and feeling insufficiently informed about CMs. It is possible that customer`s interest in having access to a natural medicine practitioner within the pharmacy premises is a consequence of their current dissatisfaction with pharmacy practice, however this remains to be further investigated," the authors wrote.
Of the 1,121 consumers surveyed, 92 per cent indicated that pharmacists should provide safety information about CMs, 90 per cent though they should routinely check whether CMs interact with prescription medicines, and 78 per cent thought pharmacists should record CMs taken by customers in their medication profile.
Close to nine out of 10 consumers thought CMs should have a `tick of approval` from a recognised government body with CM expertise and 82 per cent wanted more detailed product information similar to prescription medicines for all CMs.
"Overall, people using CMs are satisfied with the results obtained from these products and see them as effective therapeutic agents. The challenge now remains for pharmacy practice to meet the needs of the community by up-skilling pharmacists to enable them to provide the guidance about CMs that customers seek," the authors wrote.
The study also found that the vast majority of consumers did not display the same reticence disclosing their CM use to a pharmacist than they did with a doctor.
"This presents pharmacists with an opportunity to step up and take on a greater advisory role which would be welcomed by customers and improve patient safety," the authors concluded.
