"If you work 9-5 - impossible!"

Having attempted to attend the clinic 4 times in the last week, I am frankly exhausted, furious, humiliated and left feeling not only uncomfortable in my body but uncared for or valued as client. As the only service in Berkshire providing your service, I understand the difficulties in seeing everyone that walks through the door and understand the concept and need for it to be a walk-in service. However, as someone who works 9-5, doesn’t drive and needs to source alternative transport to attend the clinic, your service is not accessible. Despite my situation being an emergency, I have had to book an appointment 9 days away having already been trying to attend for an appointment for the last week. It should be made clear that unless you are arriving before 5pm, you can expect to not be seen and told to come the next day, and that due to the demand of the service, the service’s last 2 hours are for people already waiting in seats. Nurses/doctors make decisions regardless of individual circumstances and leave the poor receptionist to deliver he disappointing message and face the wrath of desperate people like me. And like I was told - “we (staff) will all be out of here at 7pm on the dot”, leaving no flexibility. I am also an nhs employee and understand the high demand for a low resource service. My feedback is not a slight on the people providing the service, but more a plea for the service to consider how they can widen their service to accommodate a wider demographic of people, or even as a trust to expand the services that deliver sexual health care and not just one hub.