Welsh pharmacies’ increasing role in sexual health support
Posted on November 9, 2009
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THE community pharmacy network in Wales is made up of more than 700 pharmacies, ranging from the small independent pharmacy to the larger branches of well-known chains.
They are located where people work, shop and live and to many they are the most accessible part of the health service.
We are all aware of the role the pharmacy plays in providing patients with 60 million-plus prescription medicines every year.
But, over the years, more and more people have been recognising community pharmacies as sources of help and advice – particularly about how to lead a healthier lifestyle – and a provider of health checks.
It is only natural, therefore, that we use our local pharmacies to improve our sexual health as well as our general health.
In the introduction to the Sexual Health and Wellbeing for Wales draft working paper, Health Minister Edwina Hart states that since 2001 there have been “positive changes” to sexual health and sexual health services.
“We have seen a consistent downward trend in the diagnosis of new infections of gonorrhoea since 2004 and of chlamydia since 2005,” she adds.
But Mrs Hart also recognises “there has been less impact in other areas, exemplified by relatively static rates of teenage conceptions and increasing numbers of new diagnoses of HIV.”
Teenage pregnancy rates remain stubbornly high in Wales – the UK has some of the highest rates in Europe.
One of the key weapons we have in tackling unwanted pregnancies is the availability of emergency hormonal contraception, which is more commonly known as the morning-after pill.
From a standing start community pharmacies have become recognised as the outlet of choice for obtaining the morning after pill.
All pharmacies offer the morning after pill as a private service and an increasing number as an NHS service.
But this, together with other pharmacy services, is subject to a postcode lottery.
Many of the old local health boards did not introduce an NHS community pharmacy-based service to provide the morning-after pill.
As a result we have the unacceptable situation where people who are lucky enough to live, for example, in Newport or Bridgend who need the morning-after pill on a Saturday morning can quickly obtain it from local community pharmacies.
But people in Cardiff are left with little option other than to pay privately, contact the GP out-of-hours service or, worse still, turn up at A&E.
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