The contraceptive pill will be made available on the high street without the need for a GP visit, in efforts to free up family doctors as the NHS battles with record waiting times.
From next month women in England can obtain a first prescription of the pill by visiting their local pharmacy.
No health checks will be needed for the mini-pill (progestogen-only) but women will need a pharmacist check-up on blood pressure and weight if they opt for the combined oestrogen and progestogen pill.
The move comes as tens of million patients in England waited more than two weeks to see a GP since the government said last September everyone would be able to get an appointment within 14 days.
Thérèse Coffey, the then health secretary, said she would prioritise the issue with a “laser-like focus”, but by July this year 38 million people had waited above a fortnight for appointments.
Pharmacies must sign up for the service, so it will not be rolled out immediately. NHS England said it expects almost half a million women to be able to access the pill without GP approval next year. In 2022/23, 4 million people were prescribed the mini-pill and 3 million the combined pill.
Commenting on the plans, the new health secretary, Victoria Atkins, said it “will free up GP appointments and make better use of the skills and expertise within community pharmacies”.
She added: “For the public, these changes will mean more options for women when making a choice about their preferred contraception, reduce the risks of people suffering heart attacks and strokes and make it easier to access medicines for common conditions.”
The NHS chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, said that “rather than making a GP appointment” people can “simply pop into their local pharmacy when they need or want to access contraception”, which is easier for patients and “frees up NHS time for more GP appointments for those who need them most”.
The wait for GP appointments is part of a wider crisis in the NHS, as 7.6 million people in England in June were waiting for treatment – for things such as cancer and cardiac treatments – with more than 10,000 people in September waiting above 18 months for treatment.
Rishi Sunak has made NHS waiting times one of his five priorities for 2023, saying that “lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly”.
But the prime minister attracted controversy this month for effectively downgrading the pledge, as hospital leaders and analysts said an NHS memo telling trusts to prioritise finances came at the expense of cutting wait times.
Labour has attacked the prime minister’s inability to reduce waiting lists and has pledged to deliver 2 million extra annual NHS appointments if it forms a government.
But the Royal College of Nursing – which has undergone strike action this year over, among other things, higher pay for nurses – criticised Labour’s proposal of boosting out-of-hours work to plug the gap.
