Half of all sexual health appointment requests denied, research finds
Half (49 per cent) of sexual health appointment requests in England, Scotland and Wales are denied, new research from Terrence Higgins Trust has found.
The charity’s ‘mystery shopper’ study used the persona of ‘Gabriela’, a cis-gender woman in her 20s with male and female partners who was displaying no symptoms after recently having sex without a condom, to try and get a sexual health appointment.
Face-to-face appointment offers were made by just half (51 per cent) of clinics that were contacted by phone, while waiting times to be seen averaged 13 days – something that was even higher in rural parts of England at 19 days.
Only one in 10 clinics had appointments that could be booked online in England, while none offered such an option in Wales. READ MORE: PrEP: 5 questions about the HIV prevention drug answered The situation was better in Scotland, where 44 per cent of clinics offered appointments via a centralised booking system.
