REFERAL TO THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE

One of the duties of a community pharmacist, apart from counseling patients on their prescription drug use, is to offer advice on reported symptoms and recommend over the counter drugs for the treatment of minor ailments, if required.

Sometimes the patient’s condition may need referral to a doctor for treatment. Patients often ask:

–       “Why don’t you treat me yourself” or

–       “I thought pharmacists know more about the drugs I need than doctors” or

–       “I don’t have enough money to go to the hospital, so please just give me anything for now”, or yet still

–       “I have no one to stay at home with my children while I go to hospital”, etc.

In as much as we are an important source of advice, we recognize that a time comes when you, the patient, will have to be referred to see your doctor.

These are some of the common reasons for that:

1.)  When a problem you have has persisted for quite a while and you have been self-medicating with no response.

2.)  When you have a recurrent condition – that is, a condition which goes away when you treat it but then comes back after a while.

3.)  When you have treatment failure (or failed medication), which is when you have been using the right kind of drug for your condition but you see no improvement.

4.)  When your symptoms are getting worse by the day.

5.)  There are certain symptoms that when present always require referral to a doctor because they are warning signals of a more serious condition and need to be further investigated.

6.)  When we are dealing with certain classes of people e.g. very young children, pregnant or nursing mothers etc, if we are not comfortable with symptoms they are exhibiting we refer them for specialist advice.