A SURVEY OF A HOSPITAL-BASED OUT-OF-HOURS EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION SERVICE

An increasing awareness of emergency contraception brings a greater de mand Therefore there is a need to provide a comprehensive emergency co ntraception service. Most women require emergency contraception over a weekend and public holiday. However many accident and emergency (A&E) departments do nor provide emergency contraception, and family planni ng clinics (FPCs) and general practitioners' (GPs) surgeries are close d. We therefore developed a 24 hour service based in the gynaecology d epartment of Northwick Park Hospital to cover this period This is a su rvey of the first six months. Forty one women were seen over 26 weeken ds and one public holiday confirming the demand This demand may increa se as more women become aware of the service. With an average of two w omen seen per weekend, a hospital based service provided by the on-cal l gynaecology senior house officer (SHO), with other commitments over the weekend appears to be the most suitable and cost effective option. information was also obtained on the age of the women presenting, the ir method of contraception, time from unprotected sexual intercourse ( UPSI), risk of pregnancy, type of emergency contraception used and pre ferred method of future contraception.