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

[Soubriquet]

They shouldn’t be a pharmacist.

I mean, the morning after pill is healthcare. Your personal or religious beliefs shouldn’t come into this.

YANBU

It's part of their job
Everyone has a right to their beliefs but it shouldn't prevent them doing the job they are paid for

I would report them. How did they handle the situation?

Has this happened to you or is it something you have read about, being a hypothetical situation?

Why do you ask?

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

Does this happen in the UK? It is a reported problem in Poland, although the issue of doctors refusing to perform abortions (even prior to the current even more restrictive law) is a larger one.

I agree. If we start picking and choosing which medical treatments we are personally comfortable dispensing, where does that go in terms of discrimination I wonder?

IMO they shouldn't be allowed to make that judgement based on religion, particularly as it's really unlikely sperm has met egg yet, let alone divided or created a blastocyst etc. Besides if it's not against the law and it's been approved then sorry but you need to get on with the job at hand

I is this even a thing ?

Not ideal. Must be hard enough to ask for the morning after pill.

According to guidance from their regulator a pharmacist can refuse to dispense the morning after pill if its against their beliefs but they should refer the patient to someone who can dispense it.

I agree.

Did someone actually do this? Refused the morning after pill to a customer?
They should be investigated by the regulator and the shop should be reported if that's the case.

While I agree that it shouldn't come into it, the fact is that pharmacists have the right to refuse to supply the MAP but must signpost you to another pharmacy who can supply. And @SabreIsMyFave that is nonsense, doctors are not infallible and pharmacists can refuse to dispense if they have safety concerns.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.