Health Minister Chris Fearne has hinted that contraceptives could be put on the essential medicines list as part of a new sexual health strategy, which hasn’t been updated in ten years.

Asked by PN MP Therese Commodini Cachia whether the government is planning on including contraceptives on the formulary of essential medicines, Fearne said that a “holistic” strategy is in the works.

Access to oral contraceptive pills has been a sore point in Malta and has been exacerbated with major disruptions to supply with COVID-19 and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Lovin Malta previously reported that a number of women found it difficult to get prescribed birth control, which is also used for a number of conditions like Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis and acne.

Political figures and activists have said that it should be made essential, but little has been done to address the issue.

Adding them to the state’s essential medicine list will ensure that the country is always stocked with contraceptives, putting an end to their constant and abrupt shortages. It could also be subsidised, meaning more people would have access to the drug.

However, a chief pharmacy lobbyist believes it won’t be practical to put oral contraceptives pills on the essential medicines list, because they’re patient-specific and condition-specific. He propped for contraceptive coils to be subsided instead.

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