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A locum pharmacist who refused to supply the morning after pill to a patient on religious grounds has received a warning from the General Pharmaceutical Council, which found that while her approach had shown “poor judgment” it did not amount to misconduct.

The GPhC’s fitness to practise committee (FTPC) found that while working in a now-closed branch of LloydsPharmacy located within a Sainsbury’s supermarket in Farnham on July 24, 2022, Noreen Tendai Nyereyemhuka failed to adequately consider the privacy needs of a woman requesting hormonal contraception. 

When a patient requested the morning after pill, Ms Nyereyemhuka refused, causing the patient to become "very unhappy". Ms Nyereyemhuka told the FTPC she signposted the patient to a branch of Boots in Farnham as an alternative. 

According to one witness account, the conversation grew heated and the registrant “spoke politely but with a raised voice” in the pharmacy area, which was located in an aisle of the supermarket. 

The two dispensers working alongside Ms Nyereyemhuka, both of whom she had made previously aware of her stance on EHC, objected to her handling of the conversation and reported the pharmacist to the GPhC shortly afterwards.

According to one of the dispensers’ accounts, the patient said something along the lines of ‘you are lucky that I am a stable woman rather than a sixteen-year-old who has been raped,’ which left other patients in the vicinity “visibly shocked”.  

However, Ms Nyereyemhuka refuted claims that other patients were present at the time of the conversation and the FTPC found there was little evidence to support the claims.

The committee “found it is more likely than not that during the conversation between the registrant and the patient, members of the public would be either passing by or standing in the pharmacy area”.

However, it was “not satisfied on the evidence that when the registrant said these specific words to the patient it was said in front of members of the public,” adding that Ms Nyereyemhuka was wearing a face mask at the time.

Reflecting on the incident, Ms Nyereyemhuka said she “regretted” not taking the patient into the consultation room but “had not known the nature of the patient’s inquiry” and “had not noticed any other persons standing nearby”. 

It was also alleged that Ms Nyereyemhuka failed refer the patient to another pharmacy and that she spoke to her in a disrespectful or unprofessional manner; these allegations were not found proven. 

Ms Nyereyemhuka says she has not made a supply of EHC since first joining the register in 2008, and the FTPC acknowledged that she is entitled to refuse to sell the product on the grounds of her personal beliefs.  

However, it identified a “failure to try and protect the patient’s privacy and dignity,” albeit the patient “had herself volunteered sensitive information… in the open area of the pharmacy”. 

The FTPC issued Ms Nyereyemhuka a warning that emphasises “the importance of trying to protect the privacy and dignity of a patient”. The warning will remain in place for 12 months.

Read more: GPhC: Pharmacies not meeting patients' confidentiality expectations

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