A step forward for women’s health: it is in this sense that, on November 30, urine screening for cystitis in pharmacies and without a prescription was authorized. To overcome the complications that this infection can cause, such as worsening into pyelonephritis (a kidney infection), community pharmacists can intervene before the treating doctor, provided they have completed training.
Screening, open to women between 18 and 65 years old with classic symptoms such as itching or burning sensations, is very simple to carry out. After a few minutes, the pharmacist analyzes the urine test carried out on site by the patient, then refers her to a doctor in the event of a positive result.
Prevention above all
In the Lafayette pharmacy in Narbonne, one of the professionals, Jordan De Oliveira, has already followed the appropriate training to carry out these tests. “It’s very recent, I completed the training at the beginning of January,” he informs us. “My colleagues should do it in February.”
If the measure is taken little by little on site, the pharmacist indicates that the most important thing will be to make this measure useful: “The main thing is that patients are aware, so we are going to do prevention and put in place broader communication.
Applications still complicated
But in large metropolises, it seems a little more complicated to simply set up. Despite the optimism of practitioners, many are still waiting to be able to train. “I haven’t seen any training offered yet, but I hope it will come quickly,” a pharmacist working in Lyon told us.
For others, the difficulties linked to the implementation of screening relate more to planning problems. In fact, pharmacies, and particularly those located in city centers, are not always equipped with toilets that are suitable and/or accessible to patients. “This is a problem that is likely to arise a lot,” worries a pharmacist from Toulouse, herself faced with this problem.
A measure “too limited”
Many healthcare professionals also consider the training still “incomplete”. Not all being able to prescribe antibiotics following the test*, they would like the training to be enriched in order to be able to ensure complete patient care. “Patients do not need us to know if there are one or two lines on the test (and therefore if the test is negative or positive),” breathes a pharmacist, judging the current system “too limited”.
According to the National Order of Pharmacists, the training should be completed to allow all pharmacists who have completed it to directly dispense the necessary antibiotics in the event of a positive test in the coming months. In the long term, this could help alleviate the problem of medical deserts. Particularly in rural areas, where the technical problems encountered by urban pharmacies could arise less.
* Today, only pharmacies affiliated with a Territorial Professional Health Community (CPTS) can deliver antibiotics without a prescription.