"Was not offered advice or guidance"

A vulnerable family member disclosed to me, following an admission to hospital for pelvic inflammatory disease, sexual activity that concerned me as a previous practitioner in this area.

She attended the clinic at Whytemans Brae. In terms of numbers of partners and risk factors, her risk category was to me, akin to (unpaid) sex work which she advised she had disclosed to the practitioner on duty and questioned if there was any service support for people experiencing this issue. I'm not sure if she worded it as having been exploitative but in my mind/previous experience in the area the history should have raised concerns.

She was experiencing excruciating pain from sores and thrush discharge, which was swabbed by the nurse as she is registered disabled and was concerned about not completing the self-swab correctly. She was advised that screening was near enough pointless due to recent IV antibiotics (which would render Chlamydia and gonnorhoea tests null) and was not offered advice or guidance on BBV or other STI's, instead only advised to attend her GP for thrush treatment.

She arrived back after that appointment upset and feeling she had disclosed sensitive info to someone who had dismissed her concerns and not listened to her. 

When she attended her GP a few days later she was swabbed, diagnosed and treated for thrush and active HSV-2. She was also listened to, and referred to a counselling and support service to address her concerns about exploitative sexual behaviour.

Whilst eventually her need will be met by NHS Fife I feel the step she bravely took to self attend to the sexual health clinic resulted in less than might be expected from a specialist service.