The pharmacy refused to sell the “day after” pill. The case reached the Supreme Court

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court left without recognizing the cassation of the Krakow pharmacist from the decision of the court of pharmacists. A judgment considering a disciplinary refusal to refuse to sell the pill “the day after” the recipe client is final.

“The Supreme Court decided that the cassation in this case is unacceptable by virtue of the Act, which obliged the court to leave it without recognition,” said SN judge Marek Siwek.

In 2023, the disciplinary judgments of the Pharmaceutical Council of both instances – the District Pharmaceutical Court in Krakow and the Supreme Pharmaceutical Court – were decided on the pharmacist of disciplinary offenses in this case and at the same time she was not punished because the proceedings were discontinued “due to a negligible degree of social harm.”

In 2021 in Krakow, the pharmacy refused to sell the specifics belonging to the so -called emergency contraception, despite the fact that the pharmacy client had an important prescription for this measure.

The courts of pharmacy self -government considered this as professional offense violating the principles of full supply of patients by pharmacies with prescription drugs and ensuring the right to implement these prescriptions. However, the courts discontinued the case, indicating that in this particular case the client did not suffer damage, because The event took place in a large city and a prescription was possible in another pharmacy.

The cassation appeal to the Supreme Court's professional responsibility was brought by the pharmacy defender. She demanded her acquittal in the cassation. Magdalena Majkowska, representing the pharmacy, said that this case shows that the pharmacy self -government “questions the basic right of every person regarding freedom of conscience and religion” and de facto “acts to the detriment of his own members.” “Why the Pharmacists Local Government, since the pharmacist is to be an ordinary seller?” she asked.

“Human life begins with conception, there is no doubt about this,” the Krakow pharmacy said in turn before the Supreme Court. She added she has been working in a pharmacy for 36 years and is to perform duties in accordance with her “medical knowledge and conscience”.

In turn, a spokesman for the professional responsibility of pharmacists Dominik Lakota requested that the cassation away. As he said in the characteristics of the medicinal product to which the case concerns, information was contained that this is not an early -metal specificity. He added that the pharmacist's right to the conscience clause is not absolute and consists of restrictions. “The pharmacist, taking advantage of this law, violated the patient's rights to her freedom, and they also result from the constitution,” he noted.

However, the Supreme Court did not recognize the cassation appeal. “Cassation can be brought in such a case, i.e. in a disciplinary matter, only when a sentence is convicted of any punishment. Meanwhile, in the present case the proceedings were discontinued due to the negligible degree of social harmfulness of the act” – judge Siwek justified this decision.

The decision of the Supreme Court is no longer subject to appeal and means that the decision of the disciplinary courts of pharmacists stating the disciplinary offense of the pharmacists has become final.

Marcin Jabłoński (PAP)

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