Article Text
Abstract
Objective To investigate whether situating a genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic within a Brook centre is successful in attracting a younger client group than that traditionally seen in GUM clinics within hospitals.
Design A descriptive study of a 6-month pilot clinic.
Setting Brook in Manchester. A community clinic providing sexual health advice to clients under the age of 25 years. With the collaboration of Withington Hospital GUM Department, Manchester.
Participants All clients under the age of 25 years attending the pilot GUM clinic.
Main outcome measures The age of the clients attending and the diagnosis made.
Results A total of 137 visits were made by 93 clients. Under-16s comprised 6% of all visits compared to 1.5% at Withington GUM clinic (adjusted for the under-25s) and 12% at Brook. Far more Chlamydia trachomatis was seen (34% of all clients) than in a traditional GUM clinic (18% of all clients). Contact tracing resulted in 82% of named contacts being traced.
Conclusion The pilot clinic was successful in attracting a much younger client group than a traditional hospital-based service.