Eighty per cent of diagnostic tests carried out at pharmacies are incorrectly interpreted or result in inappropriate advice being given to patients, according to the October issue of the Consumers' Association magazine Health Which?.
According to the magazine, which sent researchers into 11 pharmacies on a total of 13 occasions, only two of the 10 tests that were actually carried out resulted in correct interpretation of the results and the right advice.
Health Which? set out to check up on three tests currently on offer from some pharmacies - blood cholesterol, osteoporosis and Helicobacter pylori. The outcome of the visits was considered by a general medical practitioner and a community pharmacy specialist.
Their view was that for the two researchers seeking cholesterol and H Pylori tests, the correct advice would have been not to have a test at all, but to go back to their doctors. The osteoporosis test offered was of some value to the third researcher, but she should also have been advised to see her GP. This advice was only given once.
Overall, the magazine says, only half of the pharmacy consultations resulted in advice to see a doctor, but that this advice should have been given on every occasion.
One of the magazine's "experts" was reported to have commented that the level of professional input from some of the pharmacists consulted was equal to that put into selling photographic film.
The magazine concludes: "If pharmacists want to offer a good service, they should improve the facilities and tighten up on the quality of the information and advice they are offering."
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's response to the report was to say that it was working to raise standards in the profession.
Miss Ann Lewis (the Society's Secretary and Registrar) said on October 12: "Diagnostic testing is set to become more popular as people make more use of the accessible expertise on hand in the community pharmacy. Any such service must be professionally managed and offered from an appropriately equipped setting. We are sure the pharmacists surveyed will take note of the report and that they will take measures to ensure high quality provision of these and all other services they provide."
She said that the Society was working on a new code of ethics and other practical mechanisms to help pharmacists deliver the highest quality standards.
"We are currently talking to special interest organisations about practical ways of doing that," Miss Lewis said. "We are hoping to identify what quality indicators, continuing professional development and audit tools could help support pharmacists providing diagnostic testing. We shall also be asking companies that provide such services to apply our quality indicators."
She added that diagnostic testing was a relatively new pharmacy service that was still to be taken up widely.
"The provision of health checks by appropriately trained pharmacists from suitably equipped pharmacies is supported by both Government and by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society as a valuable contribution to illness prevention and health promotion," Miss Lewis concluded.
For its part, the National Pharmaceutical Association accepted that there was room for improvement in pharmacists' performance but said that in many of the tests, good professional advice had been given.
On October 13, the NPA stated: "If there is a consumer demand, it is better that this is met by a health professional. But we must ensure that pharmacists providing the service are appropriately trained, use equipment which produces accurate results, have adequate premises, time to provide the service and build quality control and quality assurance into the tests."