Women suffering from urinary tract infections can continue to access treatment through NSW pharmacies as a prescription trial is made permanent.
But doctors say they are worried about patient safety when GPs are left out of the loop.
Any pharmacy in the state with suitable facilities and training for staff will be able to give consultations and prescriptions for UTI medications from June 1, allowing women to avoid a trip to the doctor.
More than 16,000 women got treatment during a one-year trial and Pharmacy Guild NSW president David Heffernan labelled the initiative “a win for women, doctors, pharmacists and patients”.
“Being able to access a health professional at your convenience and get the condition addressed properly - as it should be - is a great thing," he said on Tuesday.
"Ultimately, it's a win for the women of NSW.”
Women between 18 and 65 are eligible for pharmacy treatment if their symptoms are consistent with an uncomplicated UTI.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners NSW chair Rebekah Hoffman said pharmacists could be trained to rule a UTI in or out, but they might miss a different condition in the process.
“You can have one person treating one issue and someone else treating another, but then you won’t have someone overseeing the entirety of your care,” she told AAP.
“Pharmacists are brilliant at what they do, but they aren’t as trained to diagnose … GPs spend 10 years being trained to diagnose problems so they can rule out a whole raft of weird and wonderful things.”
A comprehensive evaluation of the trial is still under way with a final report to be delivered to the government early in 2025.
Health Minister Ryan Park flagged changes to a similar trial that gave women access to the contraceptive pill through pharmacies.
To be eligible, women between 18 and 35 must be taking a low-risk pill and have been using it continuously for at least two years.
“I'm not happy with the numbers that we're getting there ... so we'll be making some adjustments to the criteria and the training that goes along with that,” Mr Park told industry representatives at parliament on Tuesday.
“This is all part of a deliberate attempt to try and intervene in healthcare and make it as easy, efficient, safe and effective for people to access it."
But Dr Hoffman said patients had "voted with their feet" and there was no need to widen the scope of the trial.
“The lack of uptake is an outcome of the trial, the need isn’t there and patients seem to be happy accessing that care through using GPs,” she said.
The NSW government previously flagged adding more medicines to its pharmacy prescription trial, including treatments for common skin conditions.
