To ensure that staff members (including reception staff) have an understanding of the relative urgency of Emergency Contraceptive (EC) requests and that such requests are passed to a member of the practice team within a specified time limit.

To ensure that clinical staff responding to enquiries about emergency contraception are aware not only of the time limit within which hormonal EC can be used but also of the decrease in efficacy of hormonal EC with time. There should also be an awareness of the superior efficacy and longer window of opportunity of the copper IUCD when it is used for EC, It may be appropriate for the patient to be directed to another provider e.g. local pharmacy out of hours service or family planning clinic in order to ensure the patient has the opportunity to access expeditiously the most suitable method of EC.

Full information on EC (Emergency Contraception) is available here