BMJ 1996;312:463 (24 February)

News

New Zealand doctors resist emergency contraception

Carmel Williams 

Emergency oral contraception is expected to be made available over the counter in New Zealand from July this year despite lack of support from doctors and opposition from the pharmaceutical industry. The ministry of health has said that the emergency contraceptive pill should be made more accessible as soon as appropriate labelling and packaging is manufactured. The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners stated that the move could reduce abortions and unwanted pregnancies but argued that the best place for women to obtain emergency contraception was from their general practitioners.

"We have concerns that in a pharmacy the patient may be disadvantaged from receiving the greater advice that would occur in a general practice consultation," said the college's chairman, Professor Gregor Coster. The New Zealand Medical Association endorses the college's stand.

"The New Zealand Medical Association has serious reservations about emergency contraception, or indeed any powerful medication, being . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Impact on contraceptive practice of making emergency hormonal contraception available over the counter in Great Britain: repeated cross sectional surveys
Cicely Marston, Howard Meltzer, and Azeem Majeed
BMJ 2005 331: 271. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ