Can antenatal care be provided by community pharmacists?
Pharmacists are well placed to provide support in pregnancy but confidence levels, and time and premises constraints, need to be addressed, according to researchers at Brighton University. Mike Ellis-Martin presented findings from a survey of 105 community pharmacists in the Brighton, Worthing and Eastbourne areas conducted in February 2007. The self-reported attitudinal questionnaire related to specific topics in antenatal care and was drawn up using guidelines developed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence on antenatal care in the community. It was designed to test pharmacists’ confidence in areas of advice giving and their opinions on providing certain services. A total of 70 pharmacists responded to the survey. Pharmacists were most confident (>90 per cent) about giving advice in pregnancy on alcohol, smoking, heartburn and constipation. However, they were not quite as confident at talking about medicines, with only around 80 per cent of respondents being co
