The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7489 p178-179
16 February 2008

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• Drug addiction (3)
• Controlled drugs
• NHS
• EHC
• Statins
• Community pharmacy (3)
• The Society (3)

Letters to the Editor

Emergency hormonal contraception (EHC)

Care and compassion is not a matter of faith

From Mr T. J. Cottingham, MRPharmS

The letter from Simon J. Lewis (PJ, 9 February 2008, p149) has left me deeply upset. Put simply, as a Christian pharmacist, I feel obliged to help any patient in need of my services, especially if they need emergency hormonal contraception. The ease of access and relative anonymity offered by the community pharmacy makes it the most appropriate venue to offer the service.

Providing emergency contraception especially to young people is perhaps the most challenging aspect of my daily practice.

Through my displaying genuine Christian care, compassion, tolerance and understanding, many extremely anxious young people leave reassured that a life-damaging crisis has probably been avoided.

I make every effort in the 10- to 15-minute consultation to offer constructive advice, educate about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, dispel some commonly held myths and misconceptions, provide condoms and promote chlamydia screening.

Many young people display an immense amount of courage even to approach the counter to ask for EHC, knowing full well that they will have to trust a middle-aged, male pharmacist with the reality of their situation.

Never before have they been faced with such an adult environment without the support of a parent. On some occasions all I need to dispense is reassurance and condoms, with EHC being unnecessary.

At the other extreme are those few occasions when EHC is no longer an appropriate option and difficult facts have to be faced. But whatever the outcome, I would hope that each and every patient has experienced the care and compassion that they should expect from a pharmacist — of whatever faith.

Tim Cottingham
Grimsby, Lincolnshire

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