Sexual health - a Panorama documentary

[Foxglove]

The BBC will be transmitting a Panorma programme on Sunday looking at the lack of money being placed in to sexual health clinics and the problems that this is causing.

This programme says that incidents of syphilis have increased 1,500% in the past decade. A statisitc that is frightening in itself. The incidents of AIDS and chlamydia and most STIs are increasing at an alarming rate. The prospect of an at home AIDS test are close but self diagnosing is not the answer.

This is our generation. A generation who have been brought up knowing more than any other generation about STIs and their serious and devastating consequences. Condoms should not be a matter of shall I bother or not, but people should be shocked that anyone would not want to use them, regardless of whether they "spoil" sex to an extent - they should not be optional (whether we are having a one night stand or are in a relationship but are not faithful). However, we appear to be a generation who would prefer to play Russian Roulette and lose than to ensure our health and prospects of having children in the future. We can argue education and blame anyone else all we like, but when it comes to STIs, we are the only people who truly have control over our health and bodies.

The following report is shocking, not only for the disgraceful lack of money being put in to sexual health when there is a clear need for this, but also for the fact that STIs are increasing at such an alarming rate. It is up to us to do something about this as much as it is the Government to fund clinics properly.

A quarter of UK sex health clinics cannot treat patients needing urgent help within the recommended 48 hours, the BBC's Panorama programme has found.
The programme contacted 269 clinics and found that, in some cases, patients could wait weeks to be seen.

Waiting times have grown so much that one clinic was taking bookings nine weeks in advance.

The Department of Health said more needed to be done, and it was investing £300m over the next three years.


Click here to view the full survey results
One of the most senior sexual health clinicians in the country, Professor George Kinghorn, told Panorama that the situation amounted to a "public health crisis".

Gill Bell, Britain's only nurse consultant in sexual health, described how trying to get seen has become "the survival of the fittest."

Overwhelming

Panorama said its investigation revealed the scale of the sexually-transmitted infection (STI) epidemic in the UK, and showed a nation where sexual health is in rapid decline, due to big increases in the infection rates for some of the most common STIs.

It also said it shows how the rate of infection is overwhelming our sexual health service.

In the last decade, recorded cases of gonorrhoea and HIV have more than doubled and syphilis is up 1500%.


We accept that a lot more needs to be done to reach our goal of offering everyone who needs one an appointment within 48 hours
Department of Health spokeswoman

And the number of sexually active people under 25 infected with chlamydia - the most common STI - is now thought to number just under 500,000.

The programme found 27% of clinics could not treat a patient reporting serious symptoms of an STI within 48 hours.

And only a quarter of clinics offered some form of walk-in service for all patients.

One in five also operated a restrictive system where they had either stopped taking new patients, or only offered a limited number of appointments available for booking at specific times of the week.

In one case the Panorama team were told, by a member of staff at one clinic, to complain to their MP about the situation:

Clinic: "There's no provision for sexual health in London from Friday afternoon to Monday morning."

Caller: "Nowhere at all?"

Clinic: "Nowhere. Nowhere. And if you think it's scandalous as I do, write to your MP."

The programme follows the story of several patients seeking treatment for STIs, including 24-year-old Sian, who developed chlamydia over two years ago and has been struggling to get pregnant ever since.

Campaign

The Panorama team followed her in to the operating theatre where her surgeon, Professor Bill Ledger, discovers that her fallopian tubes were blocked.

The report comes as the government is due to unveil a £50m advertising campaign - the biggest sexual health campaign since the 1980s - in the next few months warning of the dangers of unsafe sex.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said the government was unsure how the survey had been conducted and whether it had been independently verified.

But she added: "We accept that a lot more needs to be done to reach our goal of offering everyone who needs one an appointment within 48 hours.

"But that is why we've committed over £300m over the next three years for sexual health."

Panorama's "Love Hurts" is broadcast on Sunday 16 October 2005 at 22:15BST on BBC One.

It is also available online at bbc.co.uk/panorama in broadband, live and on demand.

[Nieriel]

The FPC in Sandyford is horrendous for trying to get an appointment in under a week as are GPs also. Anyone in any need of an appointment should ask at their surgery for an emergency appointment!

[xph0ria]

I've never had a problem with the Steve Retson Project at the Sandyford... maybe the gayers are more efficient

[Kenny Everett]

You can get an appointment at your doctor for getting these tests done, I don;t know why more folk don;t use that option. My doc keeps appointments free every day for stuff like this

[Foxglove]

Is it just me who is shocked by the increasing numbers of STIs being transmitted then? Most (not all) can be easily avoided by simply using condoms which are free through FPCs and at your GP. Sex may be a little better without them - but is it worth the risks given the ridiculously high incidents of STIs and the fact that numbers are increasing?

[xph0ria]

Originally Posted by Kenny Everett

You can get an appointment at your doctor for getting these tests done, I don;t know why more folk don;t use that option. My doc keeps appointments free every day for stuff like this

A lot of people don't want certain results appearing on their medical records. Say you get an HIV test through your GP and it tests positive; the positive test is kept on yuor medical records. If you get it through a clinic like the Sandyford, it won't appear on your records and your GP won't even have to be told.

You can even get the tests done under a false name: all you have to do is remember the name you give for the tests so you can get the results afterwards.

[Nieriel]

Everyone's so lackadaisical about STI's as they're always of the belief that it "won't be them".

[Kenny Everett]

I think folk are a bit sleepy to the fact that STI's are very much with us in daily life.

[Foxglove]

I do too - so maybe it is up to us to make sure that this situation changes - take charge of our own health. I would bet most of us have at some point risked contracting an STI because we don't think it will be us who gets one. I am certainly not going to suggest I am an angel and have never had sex without using a condom, but maybe with these alarming increases of STIs it is now up to us to ensure that these statistics start falling.

[Rowsbette]

I saw a bit on this on the news tonight, scary stuff indeed.

On a lighter note, it also claimed the "average woman" sleeps with 6 people in her entire life.

Aye. Right.

[Nieriel]

Originally Posted by Rowsbette

I saw a bit on this on the news tonight, scary stuff indeed.

On a lighter note, it also claimed the "average woman" sleeps with 6 people in her entire life.

Aye. Right.

Average as in fucking munter???

[Rowsbette]

Ahaha.

I get that there'll be stay-a-virgin-til-I'm married gals that'll be dragging the total down, but really...! No way is that the nation's average, if we're talking in terms of ENTIRE LIFE.

[Jody]

I would love to see where some of these 'statistics' come from.

[Devastator]

Not all GP's can check for everything though, and in my experience going to the clinic gets you your results a LOT quicker than your doctor.

[Foxglove]

Is there still a general reluctance to have your sexual health checked regularly - particularly if you are not in a stable relationship? Is there a general reluctance to use condoms and do people use excuses such as being drunk for not using them? Do we need to work towards making Sexual Health clinics far more open and a place it is natural to visit, in the same was as we are all happy to visit a GP or phramacist? Should condoms be more readily available for free - such as at pharmacists, so we can pick them up any time? What are the answers to stopping this increase in STIs?