"Greater Glasgow and Clyde Family Planning Services"

I recently moved to the Glasgow area and needed to access the family planning services for a contraceptive coil change. I contacted the Sandyford service and was given the nearest appointment they had which was for them when I was due to have the coil changed to be told I couldn't get an appointment for approximately 5 weeks. I took the appointment but it was cancelled the day before due to staff shortages. After waiting this long you can imagine how disappointing this was, especially know the waiting list would be another 5 weeks which would mean further time without adequate contraception and more time that I would have to arrange from work having already had the original appointment time agreed as leave.

I then re-contacted them, again through the service but on each occasion I tried to call I was left on hold for over 10 minutes as I was "number 20" on the line. As the phone line is only open during working hours (ending at 1630) and I have to work I didn't have time to continue to hold every time I phoned and this happened every time I called. When I did finally manage to get time to call and wait for a reply I was told this time the wait for my local clinics were 8 weeks and the earliest appointment was out of my area in 4 weeks. As I have transport and wanted to get this addressed without the risk of further staffing issues and another 2 months wait on top of the 4 weeks wait, I took this appointment. As I work south of Glasgow and the only time given to me was lunchtime I had to take the whole day off. I am employed by the hour so this was an entire day's worth of wages that I had to forgo as well as pay for transport.

The staff at the service in Greenock were fantastic - friendly, approachable, sensitive and all that I would expect and I don't doubt for a second that all the staff working in the GGC sexual health and family planning services are the same but the overall service offered to the population of greater glasgow and clyde is terrible. Not only was I left for several months without adequate contraception but I lost a day's wages and had to make considerable effort to get to a clinic

Compared with my previous trust, it is appalling that the population of greater glasgow and clyde are not given the same respect for their time and financial costs nor the same efficient and fantastic service. Regardless of population size and geography, the care is supposed to be equitable across the country. The phone service is also very poor with limited option for calling and clearly understaffed for the needs if there is a 20 person queue.

Why is this vital area of health care so poorly staffed in the most populous area of scotland?