Mrs KAREN O’BRIEN (Trafford emergency contraception project) described
a scheme that allowed community pharmacists in the Manchester area to supply
and administer emergency hormonal contraception. Initially, the scheme had run
over the millennium period.
To begin with, 18 pharmacists from 15 pharmacies within the Manchester, Salford
and Trafford health action zone (HAZ) were trained. All of the pharmacies involved
were open for extended hours over the New Year. The scheme had been continued
and expanded and, now, 72 pharmacists from 54 pharmacies had been accredited.
The scheme had been set up after supply of emergency contraception was voted
one of the most favoured projects by community pharmacists in the HAZ, who completed
a questionnaire sent out by two local pharmaceutical committees.
The HAZ had not been allowed to advertise the scheme but surveyed users to find
out where they had heard of the service. It found that 21 per cent of women
had been told of the scheme by family planning clinics, 17 per cent by family
and friends, 15 per cent by pharmacies and 14 per cent by general practitioners
and on-call services. Despite the lack of advertising, 9 per cent had found
out about the scheme from the local press and media, which had picked up the
story from reading a news item about it in The Pharmaceutical Journal.
The challenges of the scheme had included the inability to publicise it, the
concerns of pharmacists about how best to deal with requests from girls aged
under 16 years and opposition to the project from pro-life organisations. The
next step was to improve teenager awareness of the scheme and to roll it out
nationally.
Project results
Miss MELANIE OGDEN (pharmaceutical adviser, Manchester health authority) presented
some of the findings of the scheme to the audience.
Over the millennium holiday period itself, there had been 36 requests for emergency
contraception but numbers had increased during the year and in July there had
been 676 requests.
The women who most commonly asked for supplies were aged between 20 and 29 years.
However, the age range was from 13 to 57 years and 24 per cent of requests came
from women aged under 19. Requests were made most commonly between Saturday
and Monday, with 27 per cent made at the weekend when other agencies were closed.
The two most common reasons for asking for a supply were unprotected sex and burst condoms.
Some women requested supplies because of a missed pill or for other reasons.
Women aged under 19 years were those who most commonly presented because of
unprotected sex.