The British journal of family planning
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Family planning has been delivered through dual provision by general practice and community based clinics since its inception. This may be perceived as duplication of services and can be regarded as an area of possible disinvestment in a climate of rising health care costs. ⋯ An understanding of the complementary nature of the services in primary care and community FP clinics was achieved and agreement was reached that disinvestment in clinics locally was not appropriate. The need to raise public awareness of availability of all contraceptive services was identified. Services in general practice and community clinics are complementary and need to develop a joint strategy to ensure an effective, comprehensive service. Quality of care needs to be examined in future work.
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Ethnic monitoring of all new and first attenders in the year to community family planning clinics was carried out by means of an anonymous questionnaire during April to June 1997 inclusive to ascertain whether ethnic minority women attend family planning clinics. A 73 per cent response rate (2664 questionnaires) was obtained. The results showed that women came from a wide variety of ethnic groups and from almost every country in the world. ⋯ However at all but one of the clinic sites, which are spread around the borough, the UK European group was in a minority ranging from 20 to 47 per cent in attendance, compared to other ethnic groups. It is proposed that ethnic monitoring will be routinely recorded from April 1998 for new and first time attenders. It is also planned to work more closely with various ethnic minority groups in the community.
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No previous studies have examined the influences of cultural background on the provision of contraceptive services to females under 16 years of age. A research project was undertaken to investigate any differences between general practitioners trained in the United Kingdom and those trained in the Indian sub-continent in relation to contraceptive service provision to females under 16 years of age. A self-completion postal questionnaire survey was distributed to 230 unrestricted principal general practitioners across Scotland. ⋯ Cultural background may be influential in general practitioner provision of contraceptive services to females below the legal age of consent for sexual intercourse. In order to obtain more conclusive evidence a larger study is necessary. Such investigations must be undertaken with appropriate sensitivity and social awareness.
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A prospective survey of 972 married (sexually active) women living in rural areas of Lalganj block of Vaishali district in Bihar state of India was carried out. The study was aimed at obtaining first hand information from the rural women regarding their contraceptive practices and to use the information thus gained to identify those spheres of concern where greater attention needs to be paid to make the family planning system more efficient. The population investigated consisted of women attending the combined obstetric and gynaecology clinic located at Lalganj. ⋯ Fortyper cent of women in the age group 21 to 30 years and a similar percentage (41.1 per cent) in the age group 31 to 40 years had two or more live children but did not use any contraceptive. The results reveal that tubal sterilisation is the most popular method of contraception among women living in rural areas of the state. Birth spacing, or delaying the birth of the first child by the use of reversible forms of contraception, is not the common practice among these women.
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Over two years have elapsed since the Department of Health issued a press release concerning the safety of some third generation contraceptive pills. Warnings about increased abortion rates followed and recently published national figures for England and Wales have confirmed this. In Grampian we have assessed the impact of the pill scare at a subnational level, which has received much less consideration. ⋯ Failure to demonstrate numerical impact for the population does not deny the devastating effect of a termination for an individual woman. The emotional impact of the scare on women, while more difficult to measure, should not be underestimated. The influence on the next generation of women with regard to their contraceptive choice remains to be seen.