Since commencing delivery of the NHS Contraception Service in April 2023, Pharmacy Plus Health in Headingley, West Yorkshire has seen a growing demand – particularly among its large student population. The expanded free emergency contraceptive pill offer, introduced in October 2025, has made timely support even easier to access.

Veronica Sanna, pharmacist at the Headingley and Alwoodley branches explains how having pharmacy technicians delivering high‑quality consultations to patients means they benefits from prompt, confidential and convenient care, while pharmacists gain time to focus on complex clinical cases.

When the Pharmacy Contraception Service was revised in Oct 25 to include the emergency contraceptive pill, our ongoing supply and initiation of oral contraception was already well established,

We initially began providing the free emergency contraceptive pill to patients in summer 2023 through a locally commissioned service in Leeds – we had been offering oral contraception ongoing consultations as part of the national Pharmacy Contraception Service from April, and this felt a natural extension.

At the time we were the only pharmacy offering this service in the area and as we are also based in a location with a large student population, we had a great uptake from the outset, but we wanted to make it even more accessible to our population.

Our pharmacy technician Maria completed training to ensure she had the necessary competency to deliver the service and also started shadowing our pharmacist. With the initial help of a consultation form to guide her, she has grown in confidence and is now providing emergency contraceptive pill consultations.

Improving patient access to the NHS pharmacy contraception service

We have received excellent feedback from both GPs and patients – the service is easily accessible, patients get an in-depth consultation, and if the patient agrees, the results are communicated to the GP to be monitored.

Thanks to the involvement of pharmacy technicians like Maria in the service, patients are seen more promptly, and it gives us a chance to inform patients of other services available in community pharmacy such as Pharmacy First which can only be provided by a pharmacist.

Ensuring women have accessible and timely sexual health support

Working in an area with a high population of college and university students, we play an important role in ensuring women have accessible and timely sexual health support. By offering both emergency contraception and advice on ongoing contraception, we support informed patient choice – following the supply of the emergency contraceptive pill we discuss future long-term contraception and this can lead to patients being supplied with oral contraception (‘the pill’) without the need to see the GP.

We help offer patients a choice of settings where they can discuss their contraceptive needs – community pharmacies are a bit more informal and often have later opening hours, while still having fully private consultation rooms.

It is easy to book an appointment, or just walk in, and patients can be confident that they will receive a confidential and non-judgemental approach. Patients are also aware that if we cannot help them, for any reason, we will direct them to the best health care provider available.

Using the full skill mix in community pharmacy teams

Maria’s confidence and communication skills have really developed due to this work. As a pharmacy technician, her role was mostly behind the scenes, however, delivering consultations on a daily basis has strengthened her patient-facing skills. He consultations have received both positive patient feedback and repeat attendance.

Pharmacy technicians already have the knowledge to deliver services and can do so much more than just check prescriptions. Having them deliver this service frees up time that can be used to deliver other services such as Pharmacy First, vaccination programmes, independent prescribing consultations and much more.

In the future we hope to increase the numbers of patients being signposted to the service through collaboration with local GP practices.

Patient examples

A case that stood out for me recently was a woman experiencing bleeding and facial acne due to her current contraceptive. During her consultation I analysed her situation and discussed some alternatives – finding the right contraception is key as hormonal imbalances can affect several aspects of our life and health. After checking with her GP practice, we came up with a shared decision to change the contraception type to tackle both the bleeding and the acne. The patient was impressed that I could spend so much time with her and consider all the options.

One consultation that stood out for Maria involved a young woman who was seeking advice following a recent sexual experience. She could share her concerns in a supportive environment and was provided emotional support as well as appropriate clinical advice. She was also signposted to other relevant services including sexual health clinics.

She left feeling reassured, and this consultation reinforced the importance of empathy within sexual health services. Oral contraception does not protect from sexually transmitted diseases so it’s important to consider wider sexual health. These considerations always form part of the advice given during consultations.