The National Health Fund has published a map of pharmacies that want to join a pilot program under which pharmacists will provide a service for dispensing emergency contraception. As of Friday, 770 pharmacies had submitted applications.
There is a map of pharmacies with the morning-after pill
Published May 27, 2024 11:16
Fot. Tomasz Kobosz
Interest within cities such as Warsaw or Krakow, or in the Upper Silesian conurbation, is clearly greater than in Podkarpacie or Podlasie, for example. In cities such as Rzeszow, Przemyśl and Augustow, however, no pharmacies have signed up for the pilot.
- We have pharmacies interested in the pilot in all provinces. When it comes to the topic of emergency contraception, worldview issues always come into play. There are regions that are more conservative, so there are fewer of these outlets in some places. Undoubtedly, however, if someone finds themselves in a difficult situation, they will be able to reach a pilot pharmacy. I also think that there will be more and more applications. The Ministry of Health's position is that all women aged 15 and over without parental consent can apply for the pill. However, we leave the pharmacists to be independent, and it is up to them to decide whether they will write a prescription. This may be an argument for some," comments Damian Kuraś, spokesman for the Health Ministry.
Marek Tomkow, president of the Supreme Pharmaceutical Chamber, estimates that the interest from pharmacies is adequate to what the demand is for the services provided under the pilot.
- That's about 300 prescriptions a day. Since we already have about 800 pharmacies willing to participate in the pilot, this is already a good safeguard. Some pharmacies will not join the program because they were never interested there. It also doesn't make sense to look at geography, since patients themselves often choose larger towns to remain anonymous. The assumption that every pharmacy will join the program is doomed in advance, because we really don't need 12,000 pharmacies to handle those few hundred prescriptions a day. Pharmacies also won't always want to get involved in doing the whole procedure for individual cases on a monthly basis, especially since you can issue a pharmaceutical prescription for emergency contraception anyway, without joining the program," comments Marek Tomkow.
The list of pharmacies that will join the pilot can be found HERE.
