Ontario pharmacists drop Plan B screening form
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* Laura Eggertson

After a meeting with Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian, Ontario's pharmacists have issued new guidelines and will no longer routinely collect women's names, addresses and sensitive personal information before dispensing an emergency contraceptive.

Privacy commissioners in British Columbia and in Saskatchewan have also expressed concern to pharmacy colleges in their provinces about a screening form and the collection and storage of sensitive personal information, a practice the Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) had been recommending after levonorgestrel (Plan B) became available without a prescription in April 2005.

The Ontario College of Pharmacists released its new guidelines Dec. 15, 9 days after *CMAJ* posted a news article about the screening form and the concerns of several privacy commissioners.

The Women's Health Network and individual women that *CMAJ* interviewed have said they are worried that the collection of women's names, addresses and sensitive personal information will deter some women from accessing the drug.

Pharmacists do not routinely collect personally identifiable information when providing other Schedule II drugs, Cavoukian said.

The new Ontario guidelines state that “Pharmacists should continue to seek information from the patient only as necessary to clarify the appropriateness of providing Plan B, keeping in mind the patient's right to remain anonymous and to decline responding to personally sensitive questions.”

“In the case of Plan B, personally identifiable information should not be recorded except when requested by the patient for reimbursement purposes or in those rare instances where it is deemed important for continuity of care of the patient.”

In a news release accompanying the guidelines, Marc Kealey, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, emphasized that pharmacists should seek information from the patient “only as necessary to clarify the appropriateness of providing ECP.”

“The release of these guidelines demonstrates tremendous leadership by Ontario pharmacists and the Office of the IPC,” Kealey stated.

In British Columbia, Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis and his colleague Bill Trott have been speaking to the College of Pharmacists of BC. They planned to meet again in January, Trott said in an interview.

“We are looking at a series of options. We hope to be able to provide some recommendations to them.”

Saskatchewan Privacy Commissioner Gary Dickson has also written to the Saskatchewan College of Pharmacists about the screening form and privacy issues.

“We have indicated a number of concerns that we have with the program,” Dickson said in an interview. “There was some concern about the highly sensitive and prejudicial information on the forms and what happens to that information.”

Dr. Philip Hall, president of the medical staff at St. Boniface General Hospital in Winnipeg, has urged the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada to weigh in on the issue.

“In my view, collection of personal information in this context is abhorrent and reprehensible,” Hall, who is also a professor at the University of Manitoba, wrote Dec. 13 to the SOGC executive.

“If the pharmacists don't need it for a bottle of aspirin, they don't need it for Plan B either,” he later told *CMAJ*, referring to the collection of identifying information.

Dr. André Lalonde, SOGC executive vice-president, says the Society just wants to move the issue forward. “We're not interested in battles, we're just interested in getting these drugs to women as best we can.”

Cavoukian and Loukidelis both say they are worried about the security of the data once pharmacists collect and store it, and about whether individual pharmacists had policies letting women know what they used the information for and what would ultimately happen to that data.

Cavoukian has already had a call from one woman who had a “distressing” experience when she went to obtain levonorgestrel from a pharmacist within the last 2 weeks, before the new guidelines took effect.

“She was humiliated. She was asked these very embarrassing questions and she didn't understand why,” Cavoukian said in an interview.

The woman thanked Cavoukian for her intervention, and Cavoukian in turn saluted the Ontario pharmacists. “They were wonderful and I was delighted with the cooperation and the spirit with which they met us.”

The Canadian Women's Health Network is also pleased by the Ontario pharmacists decision. Chair Abby Lippman says “We hope pharmacists in other provinces follow suit, and that all other processes that impede or delay access to women and girls will be lifted.”.

## Footnotes

*   Published at [www.cmaj.ca](http://www.cmaj.ca) on Dec. 21, 2005.