Chlamydia infections represent a significant public health problem, with a prevalence of 6-10% in FPC attendees. There has been recent concern expressed about the management of these patients in terms of treatment and follow-up.
An audit was carried out to monitor referral compliance and outcome with care pathways of women attending our FPC who were positive for chlamydia.
The study was conducted at Palatine Centre FPC and GUM clinics in Manchester, UK.
Of the 1935 women who were tested for chlamydia, 5.1% were positive. The age range was 15-41 years. Treatment was verified in 90% of cases, of which 85% attended a GUM clinic. Despite reasonable efforts, information on the outcome was not obtainable for ten women. The median time between referral and treatment was 5-6 days. Sexual contacts were traced in 57% of cases.
The study concluded that our referral compliance and treatment rates to be excellent, demonstrating that GUM and family planning services can work well in partnership from different locations. However, this audit has shown low performance in partner notification, and we recommend that more effort be directed to this aspect.
Reference: https://srh.bmj.com/content/30/2/86
