The International Journal of Pharmacy Practice 2008; Supplement 2 B5 prescription. Overall, branded dispensing was slightly more com- mon than generic dispensing. Injection antibiotics represented 2.2% of all the dispensed antibiotics, and 45.5% of the injection antibiotics were dispensed without a prescription. There was no difference in the percentage of non-prescription dispensing of antibiotics between pharmacists and pharmacy assistants. The average number of medications dispensed was 2.1. The average number of antibiotic daily doses dispensed was 6.5. Despite the UAE Federal Law for the Pharmaceutical Profes- sion prohibiting the sale of prescription medicines (including antibiotics) without a prescription, our study has shown that antibiotics are commonly sold over the counter in UAE com- munity pharmacies. The lack of strict legal enforcement, insuf- ficient comprehension of existing laws and gaps in the current health system might be contributing factors for the over-the-counter sale of antibiotics. Public and pharmacist edu- cation about the dangers of over-the-counter use of antibiotics as well as the integration between community pharmacists and authority bodies is suggested to overcome this problem. 1 World Health Organization. How to investigate drug use in health facilities (selected drug use indicators). Geneva: World Health Organization; 1993. Over-the-counter, Herbal and Complementary Medicines 6 An insight into Australia’s non-prescription medicine-scheduling system in practice L Emmerton School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia. E-mail: l.emmerton@pharmacy.uq.edu.au In Australia, a tiered risk-management system classifies non-prescription medicines as unscheduled medicines, Phar- macy (Schedule 2) Medicines or Pharmacist Only (Schedule 3) Medicines. Pharmacist Only Medicines require labelling and a pharmacist’s involvement in clinical aspects of the sale. Similar scheduling systems operate in other countries, while a ‘behind-the-counter’ schedule has been mooted in the USA. There are some economic data in favour of the status quo in Australia, 1 but further insight into customer and pharmacy staff behaviour surrounding this system is required to assess its utility. This study aimed to characterise sales and purchas- ing behaviour for unscheduled medicines, Pharmacy Medi- cines and Pharmacist Only Medicines. It was hypothesised that more restrictive scheduling was aligned with greater potential for risk management. A survey was conducted to establish a database of non-pre- scription medicine sales in 15 pharmacies in south-east Queensland in mid-August, 2006. Researchers observed and documented all non-prescription medicine sales over 36 h per pharmacy (approximately 7 h/day for 5 days), and interviewed all available purchasers of these medicines using a previously validated questionnaire. The resulting data have been analysed descriptively to investigate a range of professional and market- ing issues. The analysis reported here correlates key sales and purchasing-behaviour variables with the non-prescription med- icine schedules. Univariate analysis is presented to identify variables worthy of further investigation. Sales of 991 unscheduled medicines, 1712 Pharmacy Medi- cines and 764 Pharmacist Only Medicines were documented. More restrictive scheduling was significantly (P < 0.01) associ- ated with younger purchasers, purchase of a single non-pre- scription medicine, intention to self-use the medicine, intention to purchase a particular brand, repeat purchase, brand-switch- ing interventions by pharmacy staff, pharmacy staff influence on first-time purchases and observed consultation by pharma- cists. Pharmacists were observed to provide consultation in only 54.7% of the Pharmacist Only Medicine sales. There were 13 cases (1.7% of observed sales) where Pharmacy and Phar- macist Only Medicines had been sourced from publicly acces- sible areas of the store (contrary to legislation in Queensland). Despite higher rates of repeat purchases and intended-brand pur- chases for Pharmacist Only Medicines compared with Phar- macy Medicines and unscheduled medicines, Pharmacist Only Medicines tended to receive more professional involvement dur- ing their sale, including pharmacists’ consultation, staff influ- ence on first-time purchases and in-store interventions resulting in change of product. These findings suggest acceptance of the hypothesis relating to increased potential for risk management. However, pharmacists’ involvement in Pharmacist Only Medi- cine sales, required by law, was notably sub-optimal in this study. Emphasis on legal and professional guidelines is recom- mended to optimise the restrictions surrounding Pharmacist Only Medicines, and therefore their quality use. Discussion Reference Introduction Methods Results Discussion