Updated Pharmacy Contraception Services data now available in SHAPE

SHAPE Place now contains new information on Pharmacy Contraception Services, with data uploaded up to March 2024.

Pharmacy Contraception Services provide opportunities for pharmacies to help address health inequalities by providing wider healthcare access in their communities. Services include the ongoing monitoring and supply of repeat oral contraception, and the ability for community pharmacists to initiate oral contraception without patients having to see a doctor.

This gives patients greater choice about where they can access contraception services, and also frees up capacity in primary care and sexual health clinics for more complex assessments.

As well as SHAPE showing which pharmacies are signed up to provide contraception services, you can also see how many consultations have been carried out at each pharmacy.

This information is available on SHAPE Place, which is free to use for the public sector.

You’ll be able to see how many pharmacies are signed up and providing the service, how many consultations are being provided monthly, the change in the number of consultations and the total number of consultations.

The data gives you a way to analyse the location of pharmacies providing contraceptive services across your region, identifying gaps in provision, and to track the uptake of services across an area or at individual locations.

You may find it useful to overlay Core20 data (the most deprived 20% of the national population) to help you understand the demographic make-up of your region, how this correlates with contraceptive service provision, and where you can best target your promotion of services to meet demand and need.

Interested in finding out more about pharmaceutical services? Discover how West Yorkshire ICB used SHAPE to support their strategic ambitions for delivery of community pharmacy services across their patch.