Nhs Makes Morning-after Pill Available For Free Across Pharmacies In England

The NHS has made nan morning-after pill disposable for free crossed pharmacies successful England successful an effort to trim a “postcode lottery” of entree to emergency contraception.

Almost 10,000 pharmacies are now capable to connection nan pill without charge, redeeming those successful request of free emergency contraception from having to sojourn their GP aliases to get an assignment astatine a intersexual wellness clinic.

Some pharmacies were antecedently charging arsenic overmuch arsenic £30 for emergency oral contraception.

The NHS’s nationalist objective head for women’s health, Dr Sue Mann, said nan description was “one of nan biggest changes to intersexual wellness services since nan 1960s” and “a gamechanger successful making reproductive healthcare much easy accessible for women”.

“Instead of trying to hunt for women’s services aliases explicate their needs, from coming women tin conscionable popular into their section drugstore and get nan oral emergency contraceptive pill free of complaint without needing to make an appointment,” she said.

“With 4 successful 5 group surviving wrong a 20-minute locomotion from a pharmacy, this work is different illustration of really nan NHS is already delivering connected our 10-year wellness scheme committedness to displacement attraction into nan bosom of communities”.

The coincides pinch nan NHS announcing that group who person been recently prescribed antidepressants will besides now beryllium capable to activity proposal and support astir their medicine and patient manner changes from their section pharmacist.

Henry Gregg, nan main executive of nan National Pharmacy Association, which represents astir 6,000 independent pharmacies crossed nan UK, said: “We’ve agelong called for nan nationalist commissioning of emergency contraception truthful this is bully news for patients and pharmacies alike that this is launching today.

“For excessively long, entree to free emergency contraception has been a postcode lottery for patients, pinch section arrangements only existing successful definite parts of nan country.

“It’s really important that pharmacies, who are nether important unit and closing successful grounds numbers, are sustainably funded truthful they tin proceed to supply services to patients specified arsenic these.”

The curate for care, Stephen Kinnock, said: “This is simply a awesome measurement guardant that removes barriers of entree to reproductive attraction that person fto women down for excessively long.

“Pharmacies play a cardinal domiciled successful communities, trusted by section group and easy to access. That’s why it’s captious location are a wide scope of services and medications available.”