Urinary infection and angina: pharmacy screening tests and antibiotics without a prescription from 2024

Dès 2024, les pharmacies pourront délivrer des antibiotiques après avoir effecteur des test de cystite et d'angine. Illustration Pixabay – Jarmoluk

A measure has been proposed in the next Social Security financing bill, from 2024 it will now be possible for pharmacists to test and dispense antibiotics for patients positive for cystitis and cystitis. angina. 

A new measure has been proposed in the next Social Security financing bill. From 2024, it will be possible for pharmacists to carry out screening tests for cystitis and angina, according to information from AFP reported by The Figaro.

Pharmacists will be able to carry out a diagnostic test and then, in the event of positive responses, they will be able to dispense antibiotics without a doctor's prescription. 

Since 2021, it was possible for pharmacists to dispense antibiotics without a prescription only if health structures or doctors agreed to delegate the task to them. From 2024, the task turns out to be simpler, it will be possible to carry out these tests directly at the pharmacist without going through a doctor.

A diagnosis between two and fifteen minutes 

Patients will therefore have to carry out a Trod, a rapid diagnostic orientation test. 

This news is not about complicating the lives of pharmacists, these tests were created with the aim of quickly diagnosing whether a person has one of these diseases.

For the cystitis test, the diagnosis can be assessed "in two minutes" assures Fabien Larue, director of AZZ, French manufacturer of Trod. For angina he "works to improve the Trod, to do it in less than five minutes compared to 10 to 15 minutes" currently.

Pharmacists must be trained to handle these tests, "we are in the process of sending Trods to training organizations", explained the head of AZZ.

Tests between one and two euros

The cost of these tests is two euros for the diagnosis of cystitis and one euro for that of angina. The prices could however change, in fact pharmacists will be able to establish their own price for the procedure of this test.

This measure aims to reduce antibiotic use in France. Out of six million antibiotic prescriptions, only two million are justified according to Health Insurance. This test will therefore allow the detection or not of bacterial angina and cystitis and therefore the justified prescription of an antibiotic. 

In addition, this measure will relieve general practitioners, respond to medical shortages and also simplify the lives of patients who think they are suffering from one of these two diseases.