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Lack of access to contraception ‘failing women’, says top doctor

Posted on the 26th June 2023

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The women’s health ambassador for England has said that UK women are being ‘failed’ by a lack of access to contraceptive services.

Professor Lesley Regan, a leading gynaecologist, blames ‘destructive’ changes made to the NHS system in 2012, which siloed GP surgeries from hospitals, for women finding it harder to access contraception than they did a decade ago.

She called for GPs to receive more training in contraception, describing the £25m funding earmarked recently for women’s health hubs in England as ‘a drop in the ocean’.

Speaking as part of a Channel 4 documentary, Pill Revolution, examining the barriers to contraception access, Professor Regan criticized the NHS’ preoccupation with cost as counterproductive, stating that ‘contraception is the single most cost-effective invention in healthcare’.

She also attributed an increase in unplanned pregnancies to a disjointed system and significantly delayed procedures: “If you’re not commissioned to deal with the problem, there’s no incentive to do a job properly. Contraception has got to be everybody’s business and up until this moment it’s been nobody’s responsibility, and no one’s been accountable for it.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated delays in contraception provision, with one study showing that the number of people unable to access appointments rose from 0.6% before lockdown to 6.5% after lockdown.

Freedom of information requests have shown that the average woman waits over a month for a coil insertion appointment. Longer delays are prevalent in other parts of the UK, with women living in Northern Ireland facing waits of more than a year.

Figures from the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health show that 45% of pregnancies in England are unplanned, with one in four pregnancies ending in termination.

A Department of Health and Social Care statement said: “We published a women’s health strategy for England and recently announced £25m for women’s health hubs – enabling women across the country to benefit from better access to care for essential services including contraception.

“We’re also providing more than £3.5bn this financial year to local authorities to fund public health services – including sexual and reproductive health services. This will increase to £3.58bn in 2024-25.”

Related: Men and women receiving different advice on heart disease

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