Binnaway Pharmacy is now participating in the NSW Pharmacy Trial, allowing for the provision some important medications and treatments that are usually only available via prescription.

Binnaway Pharmacy is the only business in the Warrumbungle Shire participating in the new trial, which has been led by the University of Newcastle in association with several other universities.

Binnaway pharmacist, Tony Phan said the pharmacy’s participation in the trial was purely to provide a community service.

“We’ve got no doctors down here in Binnaway, so ItrytodowhatIcan,”Mr Phan said.

Currently, the trial only allows for pharmacists to provide treatment for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women aged from 18 to 65 years.

However, Mr Phan said it wasn’t as simple as coming in with a UTI and getting your medication, but that there was a consultation process which needed to be carried out first.

Mr Phan stressed the trial was not a replacement for a formal doctor consultation, but it did make it easier for patients with a UTI to access medication when they met the trial’s eligibility criteria.

“There are also certain issues that I need to refer to the doctors; I can’t just give out the medication as there are proper processes that are in place.”

Mr Phan said the service had been helpful for the few people who had come into the pharmacy so far, as they were able to avoid the uncertainty of making an appointment and having to wait potentially several weeks to receive treatment for a condition that needs to be treated sooner rather than later.

“It also saves them from having to go to the hospital and having to wait to see a doctor, so there’s that convenience factor as well.”

Later this year the trial is expected to be expanded to allow for participating pharmacies to provide a resupply of low-risk oral contraceptive pills, or ‘the pill’, to eligible women.

Eligible women must be between 18-35 years of age and are required to have been prescribed the pill by a doctor or nurse practitioner in the last two years for contraceptive purposes.