The provision of care provided by the pharmacy workforce in relation to complementary medicines in Australia

The use of complementary medicines (CMs) is prevalent across the world. Some CMs, such as St John's Wort, when taken with specific pharmaceutical medicines, may cause drug-herb interactions. In this context, pharmacists have the opportunity to play an important role in preventing harm to patients.

The aim of this study was to explore real-life pharmacy practice in relation to CMs in New South Wales, Australia.

The study design involved 'pseudo-patient' pharmacy visits while posing as a patient's relative requesting St John's Wort and using a standardized set of questions to document details of the interaction with a range of pharmacy staff.

Of the 110 metropolitan pharmacy visits made, the pharmacy workforce who were involved in assisting the pseudo-patient's request included 51 pharmacists (46.4%), 57 pharmacy assistants (51.8%) and 1 naturopath (0.9%). Advice that may have resulted in harm to the patient, was offered by pharmacists in 11.8% (n = 13) of the encounters, and 20.9% (n = 23) by pharmacy assistants. Conversely, advice that prevented harm was provided by only 17.3% (n = 19) pharmacists and 10.9% (n = 12) pharmacy assistants. History-taking was not attempted by 84 pharmacy staff.

The majority of pharmacy staff involved in this study did not manage a request for a CM with known drug-herb interactions in a way that would prevent harm. These findings highlight the need for the pharmacy workforce to engage in education and training in CMs, with a focus on how to consult evidence-based resources regarding interactions in the interest of patient safety.