Published 16 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a3016
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a3016

News

Pharmacists are to offer the pill in London pilot scheme

Zosia Kmietowicz

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Two primary care trusts in London are to become the first in the United Kingdom to offer the contraceptive pill from pharmacies in a pilot scheme to begin in mid-2009.

Lambeth and Southwark Primary Care Trusts are among the country’s top five trusts for rates of teenage pregnancy. They have been selected by the Department of Health to run the two year pilot, in which women and girls aged over 16 years will be able to get the pill over the counter.

Pharmacists will offer the pill under a "patient group direction," where a doctor authorises other health professionals to supply a product to a certain group of patients.

Approval for the pilot comes 12 months after the health minister Ara Darzi said that the health department was keen to widen access to the contraceptive pill.

A health department spokesperson said, "Pilots like these will help to show whether supplying . . . [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 StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Is this a correct step in a right direction?
Dr Radhikagowri Thangavelu
bmj.com, 7 Jan 2009 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ