To think if a pharmacist refuses to dispense medication due to religious or personal beliefs

I once had a Catholic GP who refused to prescribe the pill

But more care needs to be taken so that women who are blocked from their medical care can easily access it elsewhere, and if that means that the pharmacy is forced to pay for a taxi shuttle run to adapt around their pharmacist's beliefs, then they should be taking the hit.

YANBU. They should leave their beliefs at home and quit if those beliefs are leading them to deny people necessary medication.

I dont agree with any type of organised religion at all BUT I do support other peoples rights to their beliefs.
Yes, its women who are affected by this and I wish that werent the case but I dont think the answer is to force people to act against their religious beliefs. If they dont feel they can prescribe certain things something should be put in place to help women who need them.

The first bit of careers advice I received was not to go into a role where you have to do something that you feel is wrong. A pharmacist who refuses to provide legal medicine is taking up a job that someone else could do properly.

When/who was this?

"But yeah, they can't refuse to dispense anything if a GP has prescribed it! If they do, then they need sacking!"

They can. Part of their job is checking that a prescription is correct or safe for that patient.

"people should be directed elsewhere".

Well, it's not people is it... it's women. Can you think of any religious restrictions that would find a man having to charge from one side of town to another so that the medical care he needs is effective?

While I fully support the righs of women to access birth control, terminations etc I do also support the rights of medical professionals who dont want to assist with that.
Pharmacies are privately owned businesses (or a chain) and they can refuse service to anyone they want. If there isnt another pharmacist or medic there who can provide the service people should be directed elsewhere.

Exactly this. We have ONE pharmacy in my little market town - ONE. Next one is 12 miles away, and there is no bus there. It would be untenable for someone to try to have to go there to get their meds if they have no car. And some people don't have one, or any access to a lift. And as you say a MAP is time sensitive.

A Pharmacist who refused to dispense certain meds because of their beliefs should not be in that job IMO. Why pick a profession where you know that you probably won't be able to fulfil the role because of your religious beliefs?

@Mischance · Today 10:27

There are gynaecologists who abstain from performing terminations. It is a similar scenario, and if that is allowed, then pharmacists should be able to do similar.

As* *@Precipice said, these people shouldn't be in that job either!

In typical fashion, these type of beliefs only seem to affect womens health.

At the very least, pharmacies should be clear when they have staff who won't dispense medicines due to their religious beliefs. The morning after pill has tight time-frames and the last thing you want is some poor woman needing help and denied care by the pharmacy because she got lumbered with the duff pharmacist and must then seek more cumbersome methods of terminating a pregnancy.

I didn't say you did, I said a PP (past poster) seemed to think this.

But the fact is, the pharmacist's beliefs can mean they don't need to dispense or supply the MAP. It's acceptable to the GPhC and the NHS, whether you (or I) agree with it or not.

I agree. Why would anyone choose a job that involves something they morally object to? I don't expect a vegan to work in a butcher shop. A pharmacist needs to dispense drugs as needed/prescribed. Not according to their personal beliefs.

I haven't said a pharmacist is a doctor's PA - I'm describing standard practice if a pharmacist has a query on a prescription. They speak to the prescribing doctor.

A pharmacist's right to religion does not supersede a woman's right to legal and recommended health care. If they don't want to dispense NICE approved and time critical treatments to women then they need then they can either employ a colleague who will or work in another capacity. Its not acceptable to restrict access to MAP because the only local pharmacist readily available doesn't agree with it.

I think this depends largely on how large this segment of workers opposed to one of their tasks is. If there are only a few such doctors, the load can be spread unevenly to the others who can compensate for it; it is an inconvenience, especially if the patient does not know beforehand or doctors performing the full remit of their role are further away, but not a tragedy. When the numbers become larger, it really is a problem.

I respect your assertion that this is not a problem in Britain (given the long history of no legal abortion in Northern Ireland, I don't want to say UK). But it is a problem in some other countries and I think this is because of the balance of doctors. If you have a significant number of doctors refusing to carry out abortions, what happens is that there are significant barriers to the availability of abortion in practice. Perhaps there are no doctors performing abortions anywhere in the vicinity of where the woman lives. This means that the medical establishment fails women and endangers their lives and health.

The manifestation of the pharmacists personal belief are protected in the equality act.

If anything, recent employment tribunal decisions (some of which were celebrated here) have widened the scope of this protection to include philosophical beliefs rather than just religious ones.

Not true. It's perfectly legal for the pharmacist to decline filling a prescription. The customer can take the script to another pharmacy.

Should they give up the job they have trained for and done for years because of a fairly recent change in the law that means you can buy the MAP from a chemist?

also, how often is it likely to happen? It must be a tiny part of the job.

I think it should be allowed.
We do not want to lose the skills and enthusiasm of gynaecologists just because there is this one small aspect of their job that they are not able to perform.

I have worked in the NHS and it does not present a problem - they simply refer the patient on to another consultant. I have never seen it be a problem, either for the patient or with the other consultants.

For some people abortion is the taking of a life and they are allowed to have those views - it is not entirely illogical. Thank goodness that we live somewhere where they are allowed to hold that view and for it to be respected.

Yes obviously it's more complicated than that, but PP seemed to think a pharmacist is a doctor's PA and should do as they're told.

That's your opinion, but it's not fact 🤷🏻‍♀️ religious beliefs are protected. Not that it happens very often in reality. Also MAP isn't usually a prescription, it's usually supplied via the pharmacist (in Scotland anyway, I guess I can't speak for rUK).

If they have safety concerns they are supposed to contact the GP to verify, not just refuse to dispense.

Signposting women to another pharmacy might work if you live in a city with multiple pharmacies open 24*7 but its not useful if you don't live in a city and don't have private transport available. MAP is time critical, any pharmacist working with NHS prescriptions should be required to dispense it on time, not delay women who may not have easy access to alternatives. Women in domestic abuse situations are particularly vulnerable to this.

Doctors too! I went to my GP about 15 years ago because I was pregnant and wanted to abort. It was a large surgery, had 2 female doctors and 5 male doctors. My doctor had always been one of the women so that’s who I went to see. She said she didn’t refer for abortion due to personal beliefs, and neither did the other female doctor. I’d have to book an appointment with one of the male doctors in order to get an abortion referral. I had no problem seeing a male doctor, so fine but being young and having to wait another few days and go back into see another GP to explain and ask again, over quite an emotive subject… it wasn’t a great experience.

Their religious beliefs are protected. They’re well within their rights to not dispense the meds but should refer you to someone who will.

if you want a termination of pregnancy it has to be signed off by 2 HCP. I know of 3 doctors in my trust who would never sign off on one due to their beliefs and they’re not forced to.

That shouldn't be allowed either. If you have ethical objections to parts of your job role, you shouldn't be in that job role. There are many medical specialisations out there where you will never be called upon to terminate a pregnancy. Do Jehovah's Witnesses become surgeons and nurses and yet say they won't agree to have a blood transfusion performed on the patient or to do it themselves?

I do wonder in practice how often this happens as I’ve worked with many pharmacists, some of which have very strong religious beliefs, and I’ve never come across one who’ll refuse to sell the MAP.