Describing the impact of community pharmacy organisation type on emergency hormonal contraception services in England.

Publisher: Oxford University Press Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 9204243 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2042-7174 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 09617671 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Int J Pharm Pract Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2021- : [Oxford] : Oxford University Press
Original Publication: London, England : Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, c1991-

Pharmacies* ; Community Pharmacy Services* ; Pharmacy*; Humans ; Hormonal Contraception ; England

Objectives: In England, non-dispensing pharmacy services are commissioned either nationally or locally. For the national service Medicines Use Reviews (MURs), large multiple/chain pharmacies provide more consultations than independents. This study aimed to examine the relationship between community pharmacy organisation type and a local service, Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC). It also aimed to explore the influence of deprivation.
Methods: Freedom of information requests was sent to all 147 local authorities in England. Data included the number of EHC consultations by individual pharmacies across England (2017/18). Public data were used to identify pharmacies, match with MUR data, and group by organisation type. Bivariate correlations and ANOVA described the relationship between service provision, organisation type and deprivation.
Key Findings: Pharmacy data were obtained from 76 (52%) local authorities. Following removal of unidentifiable pharmacies, 3069 were analysed - 56% of the estimated 5461 commissioned pharmacies in England. Bivariate correlations indicated a significant negative correlation between EHC provision and Index of Multiple Deprivation score. Greater deprivation correlated to greater EHC provision. A One-way ANOVA demonstrated significant differences between organisation types for MUR provision (larger organisations providing greater volumes). EHC provision demonstrated significant differences between groups and a U-shaped association; large multiple and independent organisations had higher levels than medium and small chains. A two-way ANOVA showed no significant interaction between deprivation and organisation type.
Conclusions: EHC provision does not increase linearly with organisation type. Deprivation appears a more reliable indicator of EHC provision. Provision is likely influenced by local factors but could increase with a nationally commissioned service.
(© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.)

Keywords: community pharmacy; contraception; health promotion; new contract; pharmaceutical needs assessment; pharmaceutical public health; research method

Date Created: 20220810 Date Completed: 20230125 Latest Revision: 20230201

20231215

10.1093/ijpp/riac067

35946853