Are pharmacists prioritising treating UTIs without antibiotics? Officials don’t seem to know

The government says access to care in under 24 hours for 93% of patients was a sign of success.

The Victorian Government says easy access and patient satisfaction are reasons it is entrenching pharmacy prescribing for UTIs and contraceptives.

However, it has not revealed how many of 10,680 pharmacist consultations to diagnose UTIs ended with antibiotic dispensing, when protocols stressed that first-line treatment was “conservative management with non-prescription medicines”.