A CONSUMER SURVEY OF THE AVAILABILITY OF HORMONAL POSTCOITAL CONTRACEPTION IN THE NORTH-WEST REGION

Providing a comprehensive contraceptive service is a vital component o f any sexual health strategy A postcoital contraceptive service which is easily accessible to all women is a small brit important part. This study concerns the provision of hormonal postcoital contraception in the 34 accident and emergency (A&E) departments and a non-random sampl e of 44 general practitioners (GPs) in North West Region. The study is qualitative and has a consumer perspective; the findings must be inte rpreted with care. All the A&E departments and the selected GP surgeri es were telephoned and asked the question: 'I need emergency contracep tion today-can I get it from you?' The results showed that over half t he A&E departments and GPs contacted would prescribe hormonal postcoit al contraception to any woman who contacted them, Where the service wa s available, the initial impression was that it was user friendly. How ever wizen the service was not available, the knowledge expressed by s he first professional contact was often pool; particular ly within pri mary cave. Notably, basic knowledge such as availability from other lo cal services was often absent-in some cases misleading information was given out. These findings highlight the need to improve accessibility and raise issues about staff training. An easily accessible service r equires women to have the relevant information and a user-friendly ser vice which is available 24 hours a clay, seven days a week. In additio n, any professional likely to be asked the question: 'I need emergency contraception today, can I get it from you?' must be able to answer a ppropriately.