Most of my Things They Should Invent come out of my own head; this one did not. This came from reading NDP candidate Paul Summerville's blog entry on privacy concerns surrounding the sale of Plan B, a.k.a. emergency contraception, a.k.a. the morning after pill.
It occured to me that the real problem is not with the behind-the-counter status of Plan B itself, but with the layout of pharmacies. There is no private space to consult with pharmacists. I haven't consulted with pharmacists that many times in my life, but when I have it has been at a counter off to the side, but still within full view and hearing of the other customers, often with those customers waiting impatiently in line behind me.
The things I have discussed with the pharmacists aren't uber-private (I wouldn't hesitate to blog them or tell people about them if they were at all interesting), but if my life circumstances were different I might have a problem with being overheard. After all, I'm a self-sufficient adult, living alone in a secular community. I have no relatives, co-workers, or family friends living in my neighbourhood or likely to wander into my local pharmacy. I have no enemies who might wish to blackmail me (to my knowledge), and the things I might discuss with a pharmacist happen to be considered socially acceptable by a large enough chunk of society that they couldn't be used to blackmail me. In short, no one who overheard my consultation would care about it. However, I can see that under different circumstances, or even earlier on in my own life, I might find it terribly embarrassing to discuss these things with a pharmacist out where everyone can hear me. When I was younger, I was embarrassed to tell people I used deodorant, or that I had my period - I would certainly have been embarrassed to consult with a pharmacist out in the open, in my local hometown pharmacy, where everyone could see that I was talking to the pharmacist, and the pharmacist might be a classmate's parent, and that cute guy in grade 12 worked as a stockboy at that very store and could walk by at any minute and overhear that I had menstrual cramps or athlete's foot or oily dandruffy hair or whatever.
All they need is a quiet consultation room where a pharmacist and a patient can discuss any issues that require discussion in privacy, without being overheard. This is not just for Plan B and other things related to sexual health, but also things like "I get this horrible gas whenever I eat onions" or "What should I put on this rash?" or "I'm two months pregnant. Can I take this medication?" None of these things are terribly shameful, but that doesn't mean they need to be general knowledge. As a customer service, all pharmacies should have consultation spaces that are at least as private as the consultation spaces in blood donor clinics. It's a matter of human dignity.
1 comment:
I completely agree with this idea, IM. I have to use a number of medications that are often getting changed around. There are people literally less than two feet away from me...and I am trying to understand side-effects and what to do if....and some of the side-effects etc. and specifically nobody needs to know what I'm taking and why! I would like the privacy to ask whatever it is I would like to ask about my medication without people standing on the back of my heels listening!
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