"Anthony Wisdom Centre"

I visited the Anthony Wisdom Centre to get a prescription for the contraceptive pill. This is now the only Family Planning Clinic in the local area and it is not close to where I live. All local clinics appear to have been closed, meaning this is the only one. There is no walk-in facility and no weekend service. I took the first available appointment, which was quite a long way into the future and since nothing was available for an even longer period of time for an evening appointment, I needed to take time off work to attend.

There are separate male and female waiting areas, but the level of privacy offered could be improved. The receptionist was discussing other patients' cases loudly and I overheard information about when they were due to have their coils removed. The staff also shout of patients' first and surnames when they are due to be seen.

I was given my pill of choice, but on my way home I received a voicemail saying they had accidentally given me out-of-date pills and asking me to return. I went back and it turned out that they did not have enough of the pills in stock to give me the full year's supply. Furthermore, those they had were close to the use-by date. I attended in July and the first pack of pills was due to expire in October. It would have been helpful for the hospital to carry out stock checks to make sure they not only had enough pills in stock but that the stock they had was in date. This is  particularly important, given how long patients need to wait for an appointment and that they are likely to need to travel some distance and to take time off work to attend.