The body representing Scotland’s high street pharmacists say there should be no move to making the morning after pill available off-the-shelf without consultation.

Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) tells healthandcare.scot the service is ‘about more than the supply of a pill’ and getting rid of consultations would see patients lose out.

It comes after the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said this would help make access to emergency contraceptive ‘as easy as possible’.

In a report the College said many women across the UK were ‘struggling to access basic healthcare services including contraception, abortion care and menopause support.’

The report called on the UK’s medicines regulator to reclassify emergency hormonal contraception, commonly known as the morning after pill, so it could be bought ‘straight off the shelf without consultation.’

In Scotland the medicine can be accessed for free after a discussion with a pharmacist but has to be paid for elsewhere in the UK.

CPS policy and development pharmacist Adam Osprey says the change suggested by the College would stop pharmacists being able to offer advice and could leave patient missing out on extra support:

“In Scotland, we are proud to have a free, accessible and safe emergency hormonal contraception service, accounting for the overwhelming majority of assessment and supply in the country. The service is delivered across the entire network of 1,257 pharmacies which are situated in the hearts of Scotland’s communities.

“We recognise the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ findings that despite pharmacists generally providing a non-judgemental service, some women struggle to access emergency contraceptive services.”

CPS is keen to explore the reasons behind this, Mr Osprey said, but would “stop short of supporting the reclassification of emergency hormonal contraception to a general sales list medicine as the solution to these problems.”

He explained: “Emergency hormonal contraception is not suitable for everyone, but more importantly than that, the service is about more than the supply of a pill, with safeguarding measures and general sexual health advice built in.

“Only by having this in place in pharmacies can we keep people safe and build the offering even further, supporting other policy areas such as sexual assault and human trafficking.”

Meanwhile CPS is backing a call to make it easier for women and girls to access the progestogen-only pill, which is used as a routine contraceptive, including through online ordering.

Mr Osprey said moving the contraceptive from being available on prescription-only to being available over the counter would help address “insufficient access to long-term contraception”.

He added: “We also see this as another natural evolution of the emergency hormonal contraception service, as pharmacists would be able to supply emergency hormonal contraception and enough long-term cover to ensure that the patient was able to make an appointment or reach a drop-in centre to arrange the most appropriate ongoing contraceptive option for themselves.”