PHARMACISTS are being warned that the extended Urinary Tract Infection Pharmacy Pilot - Queensland (UTIPP-Q) "could end up a medicolegal disaster" for the profession.
In an opinion piece published by Medical Observer, GP and medicolegal advisor, Dr Craig Lilienthal, noted the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' (RACGP's) warning that GPs should "be wary of the serious medicolegal risks if they end up managing patients caught up" in the trial.
"Once a pharmacist gets into a diagnostic or therapeutic dilemma, they are unlikely to have the training to get out of it," Lilienthal said.
"In my view, GPs should adopt the same attitude as many surgeons who refuse to fix another surgeon's poor surgery.
"They simply send the patient back to the original surgeon... this could end up a medicolegal disaster for pharmacists."
He added that medicial indemnity insurers should remind GPs that "they many not be indemnified for claims against them that have resulted from the direct actions of an ancillary practitioner".
Lilienthal urged GPs facing patients who have participated in the UTIPP-Q to carefully document the nature and extent of the presenting issues, record the advice that was given by the pharmacist and "determine if the patient is likely to come to any harm".
He said that GPs should then decided whether it is "in their medicolegal interest to get involved in the patient's possible mismanagement and rehabilitation and ensuing litigation", and report the situation to their indemnity insurer.
Lilienthal added that they should contact the pharmacist to "warn them of the problem and suggest they contact their insurer".
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