Teenagers to get contraceptive pills over the counter
The contraceptive pill will be available without a doctor’s prescription in 2008 according to a report in the BBC. Instead, the Governement want to train pharmacists to prescribe the oral contraceptives in the same way a GP would.
Health Minister Lord Darzi, who is leading the review of the NHS, says a pilot scheme will involve women having a private consultation with a pharmacist, where health risks will be assessed, before obtaining the Pill for free.
Pharmacists will also be able to prescribe the Pill to girls under 16 without their parents consent in the same way doctors can, if they believe that the girl is at risk of becoming pregnant.
The Pill has been available in the UK since the 1960s and is now used by about four millon women. It is the most popular contraceptive in the country, with the condom in second place.
If the pilot is successful, the Pill will be available at chemists across the country. It is currently only available with a prescription from a doctor’s surgery or family planning clinic, but chemists can currently dispense the morning-after Pill without prescription.
The Royal Society of Medicine has been campaigning for easier access to oral contraceptives and believe this new move will help address the high rates of teenage pregnancy in Britain.
Lady Finlay, the president of the society said: "We have this catastrophic tidal wave of teenage and unwanted pregnancies, we are the worst in Europe, we cannot ignore that."
Figures here are twice as high as those in Germany, three times higher than in France and six times as high as in the Netherlands. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that during 2005, a total of 7,462 girls under-16 became pregnant.
But Trevor Stammers, a GP and a trustee of education charity Family and Youth Concern, said that greater access to contraception, which is already widely available, was not the answer to the country’s sexual health crisis. He told The Times: “Because the Government refuses to contemplate sex education aimed at delaying young people’s sexual debut they have to put all their effort into increasing availability of contraception, but it will not work. They have increased availability of the morning-after Pill and it has made no difference at all in the number of unwanted pregnancies.”