Contraceptive pill to be made available over the counter in NSW

Women in NSW will be able to skip the GP for their contraceptive pill as of Friday.

Those aged between 18 and 39 and who are deemed low-risk will be able to get their contraceptive pill prescribed by a trained pharmacist.

So far, only 30 pharmacists have met the training requirements to prescribe the pill but the government’s hoping to get that number to 250 by the end of the year.

It’s understood a standalone two-week training course will be available by October to help increase the number of pharmacists eligible to prescribe the pill.

But that’s raised potential serious conflict of interest questions surrounding the reform, including the idea that pharmacists can financially benefit from which medication they prescribe.

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NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said pharmacists have “strict standards and strict protocols” and is confident there won’t be any risks to patients with this new process.

However, the Royal Australian College of GP’s is calling on the government to “require pharmacist prescribers to complete accredited post-graduate pharmacist prescribing training rather than relying on basic 1.5–3-hour online modules”.

A prescription via the pharmacist will still require a face-to-face consultation, possibly at a cost to the customer.

The NSW Government is set to cover the cost of the first 5000 consultations, minus the price of the product itself.

The new program was announced yesterday to get more rural pharmacies up and running, but NSW isn’t the only state rolling out these sorts of changes.

Queensland, South Australia, WA and Tasmania have similar schemes in place.

While in Victoria, the government announced March that women over 18 will be able to buy the contraceptive pill over-the-counter without any prescription.

The scheme will roll out across 850 pharmacies as of July 1.