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Grampian Sexual Health Services

Posted By Poiuy123

"Grampian Sexual Health Services"

About: Aberdeen Health and Care Village / Sexual Health clinic

(as a service user),

I’ve just phoned and asked for a routine STD test and the receptionist has said that they are unable to give me a kit since they have a max amount of kits they can send out in a week. I understand this is not a ground floor staff issue, this is a management issue and possibly higher. I would like to understand where the logic is in a very student orientated city, there is a max amount of tests sent out per week. We are encouraged to get ourselves checked but when we do enquire to our GP’s we are told, go to the sexual health clinic and now the sexual health clinic has to turn you away also? Safe sex is not just about contraception, it’s the after care also since people to have sex unprotected and anyone should be able to get tested when they can. There’s some days I can’t make it to the clinic due to opening hours due to the nature of my job. 

I think it’s absolutely shocking that receptionists are having to tell the public sorry you can’t get checked because we can only give out x amount of tests per week. I’m very open and I’m not ashamed to get tested but there are people who are ashamed and if they phoned up and received the same answer they might not phone back and ask for another one, since that might have taken a lot of guts and confidence to do so. 

Also any reason as to why you can’t book a self test online? I, like many others I assume, work during the day, and don’t exactly want to be phoning during my work hours to get an STD check, where my possible work colleagues may overhear. Understandably if you needed a nurse to check you over for the likes of Herpes etc, however for your basic STD check, there should be an option to order online, and pick up or even sent to your home address. Take the shame out of testing and encourage people to test, it could be life threatening and damaging if not checked. 

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Responses

Response from Jennifer Matthews, Deputy Service Manager, Grampian Sexual & Reproductive Health, NHS Grampian 2 years ago
Jennifer Matthews
Deputy Service Manager, Grampian Sexual & Reproductive Health,
NHS Grampian

Submitted on 06/12/2021 at 14:40
Published on Care Opinion at 14:40

Dear Poiuy123

I am very sorry to hear that you were unable to book an appointment to receive a postal testing kit through our reception team. I understand from your story how frustrated you must be feeling and I am glad you reached out through Care Opinion to share your experience. We encourage all patients to contact our service, especially if they have any concerns or are displaying symptoms of STI’s.

The reason that there is a limit on the number of testing kits we provide, is due to staffing and service pressures. The Sexual Health service has seen a substantial increase in demand and activity during the Covid 19 remobilisation due to back log of care, presumed increased social contact on easing of lockdown, and reduction in service provision of aligned services. The service is therefore having to prioritise certain aspects of care, leaving less availability for non-urgent services such as postal testing.

Each kit for the postal service takes approximately 15-20 minutes to make up and request on our patient management system, which links in with the laboratory service. When the kit is processed at the laboratory, each result is checked by a member of nursing staff and actioned if positive with further appointments for treatment and partner notification. All steps of this process require a member of staff to be allocated, so unfortunately some weeks we are not able to provide as many routine postal testing kits as we would like if we have staff shortages, which I’m afraid we are currently experiencing.

There is a national project which is focused on the set up of online postal testing kits, where the patient can order a test online. This project, managed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, is complex and involves many factors but we hope this service will be up and running in NHS Grampian in 2022 and I agree, will be a great way for patients to access testing services.

Grampian Sexual Health do have access to an online booking service for some appointments but this is limited due to the need to ensure that patients are triaged appropriately and directed to the right service, so they receive the right care. The link for this can be found on our website www.grampiansexualhealthservices.com

Service management are continuing to work hard to ensure the maximum availability of appointments for patients and understand patient frustrations regarding the lack of availability of certain services. We will continue to work with Primary Care colleagues to ensure that all patient needs are being met. Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with the service. We are always keen to look at how we best deliver services to our patients and work really hard to improve using the comments and feedback we receive.

If you would like to discuss further or are still struggling to access testing services, please contact me with your details on gram.gshenquiries@nhs.scot or 01224 655525, I will be happy to help.

Many thanks,

Jennifer Matthews

Deputy Service Manager

Sexual Health

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