Pharmacies central to family planning
Council pushes for pharmacists to be regulated
One of the biggest questions couples, particularly women, need to ask themselves before deciding on starting a family is, are you ready to become a mom?
This applies whether or not you’re married (or plan to be), or if you’re sexually active. That’s a question you need to ask yourself and answer honestly.
Being a parent comes with huge responsibility, and if you plan to continue your education, change or advance your career, travel, or make other life-changing decisions in the near future, now is probably not the best time to think about starting a family.
Many women buy family planning products from pharmacies. To this end, the South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC) wants pharmacists to be regulated so they can officially administer family planning services.
The council says the industry is not regulated although pharmacists have been carrying out these services for the last 30 years.
“While the board notice published [by SAPC] does not introduce any new areas of practice for pharmacists who hold appropriate permits after completion of accredited supplementary training, it defines the skills that they should possess, and the training outcomes that a supplementary training programme should fulfill in order for such training to be accepted by the SAPC as sufficient,” says registrar and CEO of the council Vincent Tlala.
Regulations relating to supplementary training or refresher courses were last updated in 1995.
“This board notice, once published, will allow for a clearer and up-to-date regulatory regime for this service.
“It will also allow institutions that were not identified by the then minister of health [Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-zuma] in the 1995 regulations to provide supplementary training on family planning.”
Tlala says if more pharmacists are trained, more young girls and women can confidently walk into a pharmacy to ask for contraceptions and other family planning options.
The council believes this will alleviate the scourge of teenage pregnancy, especially in poorer communities, as women will not feel stigmatised as they do when visiting public clinics.
The council proposes that once a pharmacist has completed supplementary training and received a permit from the director-general of health, they will be able to offer the following services in relation to family planning:
• Provide family planning medicines and therapy (i.e. contraception, emergency post-coital contraception (so-called morning-after pill).
• Provide supportive care for the monitoring and management of outcomes of the medicines and therapy, and adverse drug reactions.
• Refer a patient to an appropriate health care worker (e.g. public health facility, GP, gynaecologist, etc), where a need for further examination requiring other care or breast examination, internal and
external genitourinary examination is identified.
Each contraceptive method works slightly differently but they all create one or more of the following effects to prevent pregnancy:
• Stops ovulation: Prevents an egg from being released, making the body think that it has already happened.
• Alters uterine lining: Prevents the lining of the womb from getting prepared to receive an egg.
• Changes cervical fluid: Thickens mucus in the cervix to prevent sperm from getting through.
Notice will allow for clear regulatory regime
Key facts about family planning, according to WHO
• Among the 1.9-billion women of reproductive age group (15-49 years) worldwide in 2019, 1.1-billion have a need for family planning. Of these, 842-million are using contraceptive methods, and 270-million have an unmet need for contraception.
• The proportion of women of reproductive age who have their need for family planning satisfied by modern contraceptive methods has increased gradually in recent decades, rising from 73.6% in 2000 to 76.8% in 2020.
• Only one contraceptive method – condoms – can prevent both a pregnancy and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.