Sex, lies and red tape

Two members of the Students’ Union go

For, Kate Monaghan, Health and Welfare Officer

Boring as they may seem, these stats are the reason why an on campus GUM facility is not just ‘an unachievable idea created by students with no ability to affect change’ (Mickelodeon), but a necessary addition to the University:

• In 2004, women aged 16-24 accounted for 70% of female diagnoses of Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea, while men of the same age made up 56% of male Chlamydia diagnoses and 41% of male Gonorrhoea diagnoses.
• Young people account for 10% of new HIV diagnoses every year. In 2003, there were 6675 new cases of HIV/AIDS in the UK.
• One-in-ten of the UK population have had an STI.
• In the last ten years, sexual health clinic workloads have doubled, but funding has been cut.

Worse than you expected, right? What is more disturbing is that the long waiting periods result in an increase in the duration of infectiousness, and an increase in the probability of disease transmission. Not to mention that around one-in-three will continue to have sex while waiting for an appointment. With 23,000 students at Cardiff Univeristy, 7,666 are having sex not knowing what they may have.

Sexual health provisions simply aren’t good enough. Waiting list times continue to grow as levels of STIs continue to rise. The NUS and Terrance Higgins Trust have lobbied Parliament for adequate sexual health provision.

To those who cite the stigma attached to attending GUM clinics, with comments like “I’m not going there, what if my mates see me?” You don’t have to wear a badge saying “I got tested.” Appointments are private, but necessary.

The proposal is not to build a clinic with a massive GUM sign outside, merely to appoint an extra member of staff at the Health Centre next to the Union, so that a little pressure can be taken off the already overburdened local health services, and provide quick and easy access to the members of Cardiff University who are responsible enough to look after their sexual well-being. There are already staff in the Infirmary who are employed to work on a Wednesday afternoon, but the funding has not been made available for them to treat patients. There is just no way this can be a bad idea. The facts speak for themselves.

Against, Lisa OBrien, S.H.A.G. Coordinator

It is nye on impossible to open a newspaper these days without being bombarded with stats about the rapid decline of our sexual health, this is nothing new.

In fact our sexual health has been on a road to destruction since the end of the sexual revolution in the 1970s and there are no signs of the problem being solved without a fundamental change to our attitudes.

So is an on-campus GUM clinic a possible answer? Sadly not. Although this may appear to be the solution, scratch the surface and you’ll see its many flaws.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel it is vital that all sexually active people have easy access to sexual health screenings. GUM Clinics up and down the country aim to do just that, this is no revolutionary idea.

However, despite the government setting new targets of treating patients within 48 hours, the clinics are desperately playing catching up and have warned that they would need to treble their capacity in order to meet the targets. In Cardiff alone there is a staggering eight-week wait for women, and six-week wait for men.

Why then do I oppose a GUM Clinic in the Union? Confidentiality is at the crux of medical issues, but none more so than sexual health. Attitudes within society are still archaic, sexual health is still not discussed openly, and the diagnosis of a bout of the clap or crabs is not something you would discuss over a pint. So would you happily queue up outside the Union GUM Clinic next to people at the box office? OK, so this is an exaggeration, but the confidentiality issue cannot be overlooked.

My other concern is that resources are simply not available to fund or staff a second GUM Clinic in Cardiff. Sexual health services are already underfunded and to introduce a new service wouldn’t mean new funds, it would simply skim more from the money from the existing. It is fantasy to assume that even with the required money there would be staff available to run it. Sexual health clinics continually turn people away because of staff shortages.

This said, I don’t believe burying our heads in the sand and resigning ourselves to another fact of life is acceptable either. The problems we face can be resolved through a change in societies attitude and a commitment by the Government to maintain a consistent sexual health service. For now a quick fix will simply not do.