Gauly, Julia, Atherton, Helen, Kimani, Peter K. and Ross, Jonathan (2020) Utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services : a quantitative retrospective study. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 97 (2). pp. 126-133. doi:10.1136/sextrans-2020-054488

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Abstract

Objectives: To explore the utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS) in order to optimise delivery and identify barriers to access.

Methods: The health provider Umbrella offers six SRHS from over 120 pharmacies in Birmingham (England). In this retrospective study, data collected between August 2015 and August 2018 were used to analyse uptake, user characteristics and attendance patterns according to day of the week.

Results: A total of 60 498 requests for a pharmacy service were included in the analysis. Emergency contraception (50.4%), condoms (33.1%) and STI self-sampling kits (9.6%) accounted for more than 90% of all requests. A lower uptake of services was observed for the contraceptive injection (0.6%), oral contraception (5.4%) and chlamydia treatment (1.0%). Services were most likely to be requested by those self-identifying as female (85.6%), and those aged 16–24 years (53.8%). Based on available ethnicity data (n=54 668), most requests for a service were made by White/White British individuals (43.4%) and Asian/Asian British people (23.1%). The largest number of services were delivered on Mondays (20.9%) and the lowest on Sundays (5.0%). A high proportion of requests for services on Saturdays (57.0%), Sundays (67.6%) and Mondays (54.4%) were made by females presenting for emergency contraception.

Conclusion: The evaluation of healthcare utilisation is important to help refine and optimise the delivery of services. However, information relating to pharmacy-based SRHS is scarce and often limited to a single type of service provision. Overall, a wide range of pharmacy-based services were accessed by a diverse range of people, suggesting that pharmacies are a suitable provider of many SRHS. However, the routinely collected data analysed in the study had several limitations restricting the analysis. Sexual health providers should ensure they collect data which are as comprehensive as is possible in order to help understand the utilisation of services.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Divisions:	Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences > Statistics and Epidemiology Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School
SWORD Depositor:	Library Publications Router
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Health services administration -- Great Britain, Health services accessibility -- Great Britain
Journal or Publication Title:	Sexually Transmitted Infections
Publisher:	B M J Group
ISSN:	1472-3263
Official Date:	17 February 2020
Dates:	Date Event 17 February 2020 Published 15 August 2020 Available 27 June 2020 Accepted
Date of first compliant deposit:	1 September 2020
Volume:	97
Number:	2
Page Range:	pp. 126-133
DOI:	10.1136/sextrans-2020-054488
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:	Project/Grant ID RIOXX Funder Name Funder ID UNSPECIFIED University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100013963
Related URLs:	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-n...

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