NEW SERVICE ASSISTS WOMEN’S HEALTH AGENDA
Prior to the recent elections, the Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) manifesto contained a request that the next Scottish government facilitate community pharmacy to play a bigger role in sexual health – mainly due to the fact that community pharmacy is increasingly becoming the first port of call for regular contraception.
N
ow, a new service is under development, which will see that request fulfilled.
The ‘bridging’ contraception service will supply contraception to women, who are struggling to gain timely access to other services. According to CPS, community pharmacies supplied 95,000 emergency hormonal contraception (EHC) products between March 2019 and March 2020.
Currently, EHC takes the form of: • Levonelle, which contains levonorgestrel, a synthetic version of the natural hormone progesterone. Progesterone plays a role in ovulation and preparing the uterus for accepting a fertilised egg. It is thought to work primarily by preventing or delaying ovulation • ellaOne, which contains ulipristal acetate, which stops progesterone working normally. It also prevents pregnancy mainly by preventing or delaying ovulation
The new bridging contraception service, which will initially launch as a pilot, will offer alternative contraceptive methods to women who do not have immediate access to their preferred contraceptive method and will be available with EHC.
The main idea of the service is to provide an interim supply of long-term contraception to anyone, who could become pregnant, to provide them with immediate cover, and to facilitate a referral on to another service to secure ongoing, long-term contraception.
This could take the form of a standalone consultation or could follow on from an emergency contraception consultation and supply.
The service will provide women with more choice and control when it comes to contraception and will give community pharmacy teams with further opportunities to integrate with the wider multidisciplinary team as closer working
relationships develop locally to improve outcomes for patients.
As far back as a study in 2013, it was acknowledged that a reasonable proportion of women requesting EHC would have preferred to start using an effective contraceptive method. While an increasing number of women were obtaining EHC from pharmacies, however, pharmacists were not providing effective, ongoing contraception.
This new service will not only enable pharmacists to discuss contraception with patients, but will also contribute to the Scottish Government’s women’s health agenda.
Women’s Health Group Contraception was also one of the main focuses of Scotland’s First Women’s Health Plan, which was published in February this year. The report was compiled by the Women’s Health Group, which was created to develop, promote and implement a women’s health plan.
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THE SERVICE WILL PROVIDE WOMEN WITH MORE CHOICE AND CONTROL WHEN IT COMES TO CONTRACEPTION
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