Workloads at sexual disease clinics soar as 'worried well' rush for tests

Published on Tuesday 28 July 2009 22:01

INCREASED awareness of the risks of unprotected sex have contributed to a large rise in the workload of genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics this year.

Despite a marginal increase in the number of people being diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), staff saw a 16 per cent increase in the number of people asking for tests.

Shirley Fraser, health improvement programme manager for NHS Scotland, said: "Some of this rise has come from the 'worried well' coming in for tests. Under our health strategy 'Respect and Responsibility', we are actually encouraging people, if they think they have been at risk of contracting a STI, to get checked out.

"But we have also recently produced a series of leaflets outlining the symptoms of different infections and encouraging people by saying if they have any of them, to seek tests."

She added that people entering new relationships were also being encouraged to get themselves checked out, so that they could do so with the confidence that they were infection-free.

Ms Fraser said, however, that any rise in workload would need to be examined over a five-year period to see if this was a trend rather than a blip.

The NHS's latest figures also showed that the number of cases of STIs has almost doubled in a decade, prompting claims that Scotland's youth were not getting the safe-sex message, and calls from doctors for better sex education in schools.

In 2008, the number of acute STIs diagnosed in GUM clinics in Scotland was 23,171, an increase of 1.2 per cent over last year, when there were 22,906 diagnoses made.

Almost a quarter of all acute STIs were diagnosed in people aged under 20 – with 5,652 cases in this age group.

However the number of cases of STIs will be higher, as the figures only show those cases diagnosed in GUM clinics.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Ross Finnie said: "It is clear from these figures that people still aren't getting the message about safe sex in Scotland, especially young people. More effort must be made in making it clear that an STI is not a badge of honour but can lead to serious and lasting health problems.

"The Scottish Government must wake up to the true extent of the problem."

Conservative health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said that while the rise in GUM workload indicated Scots were taking greater individual responsibility for their sexual health, she said that the rise in STIs was "worrying".

"Far more use could be made of community pharmacies, all of which now have a private consulting room and are much more accessible to the public," she said.

Public health minister Shona Robison said she was "disappointed and concerned" at the increasing number of infections but added: "It is encouraging to see increased awareness of, and testing for, STIs – this in turn produces more diagnoses."

But she added that while the government and health professionals had a role to play, "individuals also have a big responsibility to take necessary precautions when deciding to embark on sexual relationships, and recognise the possible consequences of risk-taking behaviour".

Dr Charles Saunders, chairman of the British Medical Association's Scottish Consultants Committee, said that the figures showed greater emphasis was needed on sex education in schools:

"The BMA firmly believes that children should start sex and relationship education at primary school so that they gain the confidence to delay becoming sexually active and when they do decide to have sex, that they do it for the right reasons and take the necessary precautions."

BREAKDOWN

2007

Infectious syphilis 249

Gonorrhoea 864

Chlamydia 9,461

Genital herpes 1,511

Genital warts 7,258

HIV133

2008

Infectious syphilis 270

Gonorrhoea 829

Chlamydia 9,332

Genital herpes 1,644

Genital warts 7,360

HIV 119