The NHS has made the morning-after pill available for free across pharmacies in England in an effort to reduce a “postcode lottery” of access to emergency contraception.
Almost 10,000 pharmacies are now able to offer the pill without charge, saving those in need of free emergency contraception from having to visit their GP or to get an appointment at a sexual health clinic.
Some pharmacies were previously charging as much as £30 for emergency oral contraception.
The NHS’s national clinical director for women’s health, Dr Sue Mann, said the expansion was “one of the biggest changes to sexual health services since the 1960s” and “a gamechanger in making reproductive healthcare more easily accessible for women”.
“Instead of trying to search for women’s services or explain their needs, from today women can just pop into their local pharmacy and get the oral emergency contraceptive pill free of charge without needing to make an appointment,” she said.
“With four in five people living within a 20-minute walk from a pharmacy, this service is another example of how the NHS is already delivering on our 10-year health plan commitment to shift care into the heart of communities”.
The coincides with the NHS announcing that people who have been newly prescribed antidepressants will also now be able to seek advice and support about their medication and healthy lifestyle changes from their local pharmacist.
Henry Gregg, the chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, which represents about 6,000 independent pharmacies across the UK, said: “We’ve long called for the national commissioning of emergency contraception so this is good news for patients and pharmacies alike that this is launching today.
“For too long, access to free emergency contraception has been a postcode lottery for patients, with local arrangements only existing in certain parts of the country.
“It’s really important that pharmacies, who are under significant pressure and closing in record numbers, are sustainably funded so they can continue to provide services to patients such as these.”
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The minister for care, Stephen Kinnock, said: “This is a major step forward that removes barriers of access to reproductive care that have let women down for too long.
“Pharmacies play a central role in communities, trusted by local people and easy to access. That’s why it’s vital there are a wide range of services and medications available.”
