Privacy issues and Plan B: the Canadian Pharmacists Association responds

[CMAJ responds:]

We agree that Plan B's nonprescription status is a step in the right direction.1 We have no interest in waging a “campaign” against pharmacists, only in examining the potential impact of mandatory counselling on individual women. Our news article on emergency levonorgestrel (Plan B)2 presents divergent points of view on behind-the-counter access, including that of the CPhA. Women we spoke to reported varying degrees of comfort with the dispensing process.

If controversy results from reporting on actual policies, so be it. The absence of direct complaints does not settle the matter; one may reasonably speculate that it indicates a general level of comfort with the dispensing procedure, but it may also reflect a lack of awareness of privacy guidelines and complaints procedures, or a reluctance to bring further attention to a transitory personal circumstance. Whatever the case may be, more than one provincial commissioner has thanked the journal for bringing this issue to their attention, and the Ontario College of Pharmacists has already agreed to revise their guidelines.3 The question of the security of data in a convenience store or supermarket is moot, as off-the-shelf availability implies that no personal information would be requested in the first place.