Seán Sherlock
Question:652. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the type of data being compiled to inform further development of the free contraception service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33452/23]
View answerTuesday, 11 July 2023
Questions (652)
Written answers
The free contraception scheme, currently open to women aged 17 -26 who are ordinarily resident in Ireland, was launched on 14th September, 2022, and expanded to include 26 year-olds on January 1st, 2023. The scheme is due to be expanded to women aged 27-30 on September 1st, 2023.
For eligible women, the free contraception scheme provides for:
• The cost of consultations with GPs, family planning clinics and other relevant medical professionals to discuss contraceptive options with eligible patients and to provide prescriptions for these;
• The cost of prescription contraception, dispensed at local pharmacy of choice;
• The cost of fitting and/or removal of various types of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) plus any necessary checks, by medical professionals certified to fit/remove LARCs (e.g. intrauterine devices (IUD), systems (IUS), coils and implants);
• The cost of providing the wide range of contraceptive options currently available to GMS (medical) card holders, which will also be available through this scheme, including contraceptive injections, implants, IUS and IUDs, the contraceptive patch and ring, and various forms of oral contraceptive pill, including emergency contraception.
• Women who have had coils, IUDs, IUSs or implants inserted under the scheme will remain eligible for the subsequent checks and free removal of any devices that were inserted before their 27th birthday, in order to ensure continuity of care.
As with similar State schemes, reimbursements to GPs, family planning clinics, pharmacists and other contracted providers are managed by the HSE Primary Care Re-imbursement Service (PCRS). As the scheme has not yet been in place for a full calendar year, it is not yet possible to provide detailed statistics on annual usage, however, PCRS annual reports are published by PCRS on their website www.sspcrs.ie/portal/annual-reporting/ . The contraception scheme will be included in these in due course (the 2022 Report has not yet been published).
As reported in the Budget announcements, a full year amount of approximately €32m, taking into account scheduled expansions, has been allocated for 2023. The HSE advise that, as of June 2023, there are 2,351 GPs providing the service under the Scheme and also 1,892 pharmacies participating in the scheme.
The Minster expects to shorty receive more detailed data about the usage of the contraception scheme, including the number of unique individuals accessing the scheme, a breakdown by age and what types of contraception are accessed, in addition to high level monthly budgetary reporting that is already provided.
With regard to contraception for men and their partners, the HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme manages the National Condom Distribution Scheme (NCDS). The NCDS supplies free condoms on order to the national network of free STI clinics, through participating NGOs, 3rd level campuses and with orders from the new home STI testing scheme. The NCDS annual report for 2022 is available at the following link: www.sexualwellbeing.ie/for-professionals/national-condom-distribution-service/national-condom-distribution-overview/national-condom-distribution-service_annual-report_2023_final.pdf.