It would have taken 25 minutes and three questions to get the morning-after pill over the counter in a supermarket on a Sunday afternoon in central Manchester.
This is not the pill that will go on sale for around £20 in chemists from the new year, but a free morning-after pill paid for by the NHS and provided over the counter by pharmacists to women as young as 13. It is a health action zone pilot scheme in Manchester, Salford and Trafford, which began on Christmas Eve last year. Women have driven from as far away as Buckinghamshire to get it.
The first hurdle was getting through to an operator on the NHS Direct helpline who could list Manchester chemists open on a Sunday. This took 10 minutes. An operator gave phone numbers of three local supermarkets open until 5pm. The nearest was five minutes' drive.
Beside a display of table sauces, Christmas peanut barrels and a special offer on 24-can packs of Carling Black Label, stood the sympathetic supermarket pharmacist who took women behind the counter to a secluded pine stool beside a shelf of Waspeze and E45 cream.
He asked about menstrual cycles, other medication taken, and the hours that had passed since sex. For audit reasons, he also asked if any form of contraception had been used.
He did not ask for the name of a GP, and said this pill would not be put on the patient's medical records. The pharmacist did ask for a name, but, as he said: "There is nothing to stop you saying you're called Mickey Mouse." All details and notes taken were countersigned by the patient and would go no further. The "consultation" was free and took 10 minutes.
Around 120 chemists in Greater Manchester offer this service and 6,600 women aged between 13 and 56 got the pill over the counter in Manchester this year. August figures were down on July, because of the large demand from the student population of 78,000 who go home for the holidays.
"Some women come in, answer all the questions then break down and admit they have never had sex, but want to keep the morning-after pill at home in case they do. Obviously we will not give it out in situations like that. It's not a form of contraception," the pharmacist said.
"I worry that once the morning after pill is available at a price over the counter the health professional's control in dispensing it will disappear. A woman would not have to buy it in person herself, which means a rapist or abuser could come in and buy it. We would lose valuable contact with the victim."
