There have been mixed reactions to the announcement that Levonelle is to become a pharmacy medicine on New Year's Day.
Dr Liam Fox (Shadow Health Secretary) has asserted that pharmacists are not adequately trained to supply the product. On Radio 4's Today programme on December 11, Dr Fox said that pharmacists would not begin to be trained until January 9 and that training would continue into March. Dr Fox was quoted by the Times as having said that pharmacists were "utterly untrained for this".
Responding on the programme, Mrs Christine Glover (President, Royal Pharmaceutical Society) said that pharmacists were well qualified to supply Levonelle.
"The training we are talking about is just to bring them up to speed with some of the difficult issues and sensitive issues," she said. Dr Fox had misjudged the situation.
For the Liberal Democrats, Dr Jenny Tonge (Richmond Park), said that the reclassification was excellent news and was long overdue.
In a statement, the British Medical Association welcomed the impending over-the-counter availability of Levonelle, but said that the Government should have gone further and made it available free of charge.
Dr John Chisholm (chairman, BMA general practitioners' committee) said: "The successful trials in Manchester and south London provided post-coital contraception free of charge [under patient group directions] and we would have liked to see this extended nation-wide."
He criticised the decision to restrict the OTC licence to women aged 16 years and over, saying: "If pharmacists can assess if it is appropriate for someone to have post-coital contraception, they should be able to assess if girls under 16 years are competent and should receive it."
The Journal understands that a Parliamentary prayer against the expected POM amendment order will be raised and that MPs will subsequently be allowed a brief debate on the matter. The Department of Health is confident that all objections to the change will be refused or rejected by Parliament.