‘A great step forward’: P.E.I. pharmacists can now prescribe birth control
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — In July, Prince Edward Island grew to become the eighth province within the nation to permit pharmacists to prescribe contraception.
It’s a transfer clinicians imagine will improve entry to contraception for girls. It’s going to additionally ease a number of the pressure on the province’s docs.
P.E.I. pharmacists can now conduct assessments and prescribe hormonal contraception as a part of the province’s Pharmacy Plus program. Pharmacists might already prescribe refills for hormonal contraception.
As such, sufferers will now not have to see a doctor or nurse practitioner to acquire an preliminary prescription for contraception.
Erin MacKenzie, government director of the P.E.I. Pharmacists Affiliation, mentioned the demand for these prescriptions has to this point been modest. However she expects it to ramp up within the fall.
“The phrase is slowly getting out. I might anticipate that, because it turns into extra broadly identified that pharmacists can do that and supply this service as nicely, that we will begin to see an elevated uptake.” – Erin MacKenzie
“The phrase is slowly getting out,” MacKenzie instructed SaltWire on Aug. 3.
“I might anticipate that, because it turns into extra broadly identified that pharmacists can do that and supply this service as nicely, that we will begin to see an elevated uptake.”
P.E.I.’s enlargement of the pharmacist scope of observe follows comparable strikes by Newfoundland and Labrador in April and New Brunswick and B.C. in June.
Alberta, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Quebec had already permitted pharmacists to evaluate for and prescribe contraception.
“The World Well being Group acknowledges entry to contraception as a primary human proper. So, any initiative to extend entry is a good step ahead,” Laura Heron, a household doctor, instructed SaltWire on July 31.
“Pharmacists are a really trusted and valued staff member of our health-care staff.”
Heron, who works with Summerside’s sexual well being, choices and reproductive providers (SHORS), mentioned pharmacy hours are sometimes extra versatile than these of household practices or walk-in clinics.
Heron mentioned permitting pharmacists to conduct assessments for oral contraception can release different well being professionals like herself to conduct extra technical procedures, corresponding to intrauterine system (IUD) insertions.
“Letting everybody work on the prime of their scope is admittedly necessary as a result of it creates entry to suppliers to supply providers that different folks cannot do,” Heron mentioned.
B.C. gives free contraception
Including contraception to the Pharmacy Plus program will doubtless improve entry to contraception for younger ladies particularly.
“The demographic that we’d see for this specific situation is commonly the younger grownup,” MacKenzie mentioned.
Heron says analysis exhibits lowering boundaries to contraception for girls can cut back charges of unintended pregnancies, together with adolescent pregnancies.
Different jurisdictions could also be additional forward than P.E.I. in lowering these boundaries. In April, the B.C. authorities moved to cowl the price of oral contraceptives, in addition to intrauterine units, hormone implants and hormone injections.
“We might all the time do extra,” Heron mentioned when requested whether or not P.E.I. goes far sufficient to extend entry.
“However any step ahead in permitting ladies to entry contraception is a optimistic step.”
Heron additionally famous P.E.I.’s spring price range included $250,000 in funding to supply free contraceptive prescriptions within the province.
The province has but to announce particulars about this program.
Abilities and coaching
Laurae Kloschinsky, an government director of well being innovation on the Division of Well being, says pharmacists have the talents and coaching to conduct assessments for oral contraception.
“It is undoubtedly inside the pharmacists’ wheelhouse,” Kloschinsky mentioned.
Kloschinsky added it was the P.E.I. School of Pharmacy that first made the suggestions to develop the scope of observe for pharmacists.
“There was an urge for food from the occupation. And it is reflective of the coaching supplied in pharmacy applications,” Kloschinsky mentioned.
Oral contraception prescriptions are amongst 35 providers P.E.I. residents can entry by the Pharmacy Plus program. Different program assessments embody for shingles, impetigo, urinary tract infections, chilly sores and the Paxlovid therapy for COVID-19.
Between October 2022 and June 2023, 28,338 sufferers accessed Pharmacy Plus, Kloschinsky mentioned.
A survey of 483 sufferers in February discovered that fifty per cent of these accessing this system lacked a household physician or main care supplier.
That mentioned, Kloschinsky cautioned that pharmacists can not do every part. Some illnesses or sicknesses are usually not inside the scope of observe of pharmacists.
She mentioned Islanders ought to name forward for appointments earlier than a go to and may seek the advice of the checklist of illnesses for which pharmacists can prescribe on the Pharmacy Plus website prematurely.
Stu Neatby is a political reporter with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. He might be reached by electronic mail at [email protected] and adopted on Twitter @stu_neatby.
