Australian Community Pharmacists' Preparedness to Offer and Discuss Hepatitis C Testing and Treatment With Pharmacy Clients: A Representative Cross-Sectional Survey

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set goals to eliminate hepatitis C (HCV) as a global health threat by 2030. To meet this goal, Australia must increase testing and diagnosis, including expanding access to care through community pharmacists. This study aims to explore community pharmacists' preparedness to discuss and offer HCV testing and treatment. Australian community pharmacists from four states completed an online anonymous quantitative survey between August and October 2023. Pharmacists were asked about their experiences of, comfort discussing and willingness to host outreach HCV testing or treatment. Predictors of each outcome were examined using logistic regression. In total, 530 pharmacists participated in the study. One in five pharmacists stocked HCV medications (22%), half (48%) were willing/somewhat willing to host an outreach HCV testing and treatment team, while 36% strongly agreed/agreed they were comfortable discussing HCV testing and treatment. Willingness to host an outreach HCV team was associated with pharmacists working in rural/remote settings (95% CI: 1.04-2.35, p = 0.032), providing opioid agonist treatment (95% CI: 1.16-2.49, p = 0.006) and comfort discussing overdose prevention (95% CI: 1.31-2.80, p = 0.001). Pharmacists with ≥ 15 years' experience (95% CI: 0.44-0.94, p = 0.022) were less willing to host outreach HCV testing. Females were significantly less comfortable discussing HCV testing (95% CI: 0.45-0.98, p = 0.039) compared to males. This is the first Australian study to explore community pharmacists' preparedness to discuss and offer HCV testing and treatment. In light of research showing that community pharmacy models of care can help meet HCV elimination targets, ongoing engagement with pharmacists is needed to increase their preparedness to provide this care.