Woolies health checks spark concern

 

Woolworths, supermarket, wooliesHealth checks in the aisles of Woolworths stores has been criticised as dangerous as the supermarket giant considers whether to expand the scheme.

Nurses have been performing free blood pressure and cholesterol checks at nine Woolworths supermarkets since October.

Woolworths issued a statement on Tuesday saying it will review the trial extensively before expanding the service to more stores after copping heavy criticism from two peak medical bodies.

The Australian Medical Association and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia are concerned Woolworths will roll out the service using inexperienced and untrained student pharmacists and pharmacist graduates.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia says marketing business XPO Brands, of which Woolworths is a client of, has placed an advertisement on employment website Seek.com looking for final year pharmacy students, graduate pharmacists and entry level nurses to conduct the checks and to take part in general health discussions.

But Woolworths said the advertisement was not related to its instore health checks.

The company said it had received positive feedback from those who used the service, with the majority of more than 1000 surveyed saying they found it valuable.

Even so, conducting health checks in a non-clinical and non-private environment by inexperinced and unsupervised professionals is risky, AMA president Brian Owler says.

“Health care is not something you can just pull off the shelf in a supermarket,” he said.

“Nothing is simple or straightforward when checking a person’s health; not only are the numbers read but they also need to be interpreted.”

Turnbull said the people conducting the tests also don’t have the patient’s medical history and were not equipped, like general practitioners, to give advise about medications, side effects and lifestyle factors.

“A pharmacy student is untrained and unqualified and to throw them into an unsupervised environment poses many risks,” he said.

He said students undergo four years of university followed by a 12-month supervised internship before they become a registered pharmacists.

“While working in a pharmacy they have professional indemnity insurance and they’re working in an environment that’s conscious of various privacy requirements,” Mr Turnbull said.

“None of this is present in aisle six of the supermarket.”

AAP

You have 7 articles remaining. Unlock 15 free articles a month, it’s free.