'Secret' exit created to boost attendance at sexual health clinic

A private corridor is being created at a new sexual health clinic as part of a £9m renovation to stop embarrassed patients from being spotted. The one-stop-shop in the former Chalmers Hospital building in Lauriston Place is being refurbished including a three-storey extension to open in 2010.

Patients are so worried friends and family will see them leaving the Gum clinic bosses have built a new exit. The exit will be in a side street with waiting rooms sensitively positioned.

Previously patients would have to walk through the waiting room on their way out but now they can reach the exit without having to go through public areas of the building.



NHS Lothian said it was important to design the building around the needs and feelings of the patients.

Dr Gordon Scott, NHS Lothian lead clinician for service integration in sexual health, added: "Sexual health can be a sensitive area and we want to ensure people feel comfortable using our services and feel they can come forward for advice."

Dr Alisa Spindler, the national director in Scotland for the Terrance Higgins Trust, said discretion was paramount in encouraging people to get tested. She said: "Anything that gets people in to be tested is to be welcomed. We know from surveys that, particularly with HIV, there is a stigma attached to sexually transmitted infections."