“It would be highly inappropriate to conduct health checks in a location that sold alcohol, cigarettes, sugary drinks, energy drinks, and high-fat foods.”: AMA president Associate Professor Brian Owler Photo: Glenn Hunt
Grocery giant Woolworths has fallen foul of two of the country’s most powerful lobby groups after it admitted it was trialling the use of nursing and pharmacy graduates to offer blood pressure, cholesterol and other health checks to its customers in stores.
The retailer confirmed to the ABC that it was hiring pharmacy students, as well as newly graduated nurses and pharmacists for a trial across six stores in New South Wales and Queensland.
The move has angered the Australian Medical Association and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. The two lobby groups, for general practitioners and pharmacists respectively, are used to fighting with each other but this time they have both hit out at Woolworth’s plan.