Pharmacies | Health information may be revealed to other customers – Pharmacies’ most important task is to take care of medication, Apteekkariliitto comments

At the pharmacy when doing business, privacy is not always realized, as personal health information and medications can be revealed to other customers in a customer service situation.

of HS to the opinion column wrote on the subject Johanna Stenros described this as potentially causing “embarrassing situations and violating privacy.”

Stenros called for practical measures from pharmacies to secure the privacy of visits to the pharmacy. He suggested, among other things, the organization of separate service points or sound-proofed spaces, so that transactions could take place privately and peacefully.

Stenros is not alone in his opinions. In the one published in 2021 in the population survey more than half of the respondents felt that privacy protection in pharmacies was at least somewhat lacking.

Only 38 percent of the respondents completely or somewhat agreed that it is possible to discuss personal matters in the pharmacy without others hearing.

The survey was carried out as a joint project of Kela, Fimea, the University of Helsinki and the Institute of Health and Welfare (THL). It was financed by the Chancellery of the Government.

The survey surveyed the population’s experiences and expectations regarding the tasks and activities of pharmacies as part of the reforming social and health service system.

Is it is important that privacy protection is constantly developed in pharmacies, says the pharmaceutical director of Apteekkariliitto Inka Puumalainen.

According to him, privacy is taken into account, among other things, in space planning.

“Prescription delivery lockers often have partitions or dividers. You can use material that insulates sound,” says Puumalainen.

Puumalainen says that the issue is taken into account especially in connection with renovations and the establishment of new pharmacies.

The plastic plexiglasses that became common during the Corona era between the customer and the customer service agent are partly here to stay, and according to Puumalainen, they can make the medical consultation situation more difficult as they dampen the sound.

Privacy protection, information security and data protection are also discussed in the training and continuing education of pharmacists.

Puumalainen reminds that in addition to the protection of privacy, it is also important to be able to give the customer the necessary information about his medical treatment.

If, for example, the customer has bad hearing, it must be ensured that, despite this, he receives sufficient information about his medicines.

“However, it is the pharmacy’s most important task to ensure that drug treatments are successful and to ensure the continuity of drug treatment.”

A man from Puma reminds that the customer himself can influence how he privately communicates when doing business at the pharmacy.

“Someone might even have a photo of the medicine packages they have used. Some may have a written medication list or a sticker from the medication package.”

Some customers may also say, for example, that they want all the medicines that are available with a prescription.

“Of course, in that situation, the pharmacist has to make sure what the customer wants to choose, if there are, say, several medicines,” Puumalainen states.