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 …