title: Avoiding Treatment Interruptions: What Role Do Australian Community Pharmacists Play?
abstract: To explore the reported practice of Australian community pharmacists when dealing with medication supply requests in absence of a valid prescription.
  
  
  
  Self-administered questionnaire was posted to 1490 randomly selected community pharmacies across all Australian states and territories. This sample was estimated to be a 20% of all Australian community pharmacies.
  
  
  
  Three hundred eighty five pharmacists participated in the study (response rate achieved was 27.9% (there were 111 undelivered questionnaires). Respondents indicated that they were more likely to provide medications to regular customers without a valid prescription compared to non-regular customers (p<0.0001). However, supply was also influenced by the type of prescription and the medication requested. In the case of type of prescription (Standard, Authority or Private) this relates to the complexity/probability of obtaining a valid prescription from the prescriber at a later date (i.e. supply with an anticipated prescription). Decisions to supply and/or not supply related to medication type were more complex. For some cases, including medication with potential for abuse, the practice and/or the method of supply varied significantly according to age and gender of the pharmacist, and pharmacy location (p<0.05).
  
  
  
  Although being a regular customer does not guarantee a supply, results of this study reinforce the importance for patients having a regular pharmacy, where pharmacists were more likely to continue medication supply in cases of patients presenting without a valid prescription. We would suggest, more flexible legislation should be implemented to allow pharmacists to continue supplying of medication when obtaining a prescription is not practical.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Salem Hasn
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Abukres
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.|Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy Department, University of Prishtina, Prishtina, Kosovo.
authors.forename: Kreshnik
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hoti
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Jeffery David
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Hughes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D003657:Decision Making; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010594:Pharmacies; D055553:Prescription Drugs; D055656:Prescriptions; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D028761:Withholding Treatment; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D055553:Prescription Drugs