By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

HEALTHY PEOPLE pretending to have sexually transmitted diseases have contacted clinics in Tayside and Fife.

The actions, by Scottish Executive representatives, were intended to test how quickly people could get access to the services they need.

Quick access to services is crucial in reducing the spread of disease to sexual partners. But a woman intending to masquerade as a person with chlamydia could not even get through to the family planning service in Dundee.

The study published yesterday logs the results of attempts to call family planning clinics with the “chlamydia scenario.” It records “unable to contact” a central family planning number for Tayside, subsequently identified as the family planning number for Dundee.

The study by ISD Scotland, the information and statistics division of theExecutive, used mystery shopper methodology to test the access to services. Clinics in every health board in Scotland were contacted.

People posing as patients were to give no clue they were not actual patients with real symptoms when making the calls to clinics. However, health boards were warned in advance the study would be conducted and mystery shoppers would call unidentified clinics in each board’s area.

The clinics contacted were specialist genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics in acute hospitals and family planning clinics in the community.

The study found a high percentage of GUM clinics were able to see callers within 48 hours, but that contacting the clinics could be difficult, and sometimes a number of calls would be required before contact could be made. Less than half of the family planning clinics contacted could see the caller within 48 hours.

The 48-hour waiting time was used as a benchmark after the British Association for Sexual Health recommended a waiting time of no longer than 48 hours for access to GUM clinics.

The study stated that initial telephone contact with clinics could be difficult and there were a number of engaged or unanswered calls.

“Where clinic telephones are frequently engaged or unanswered, service access is restricted,” stated the report. “Not only does this prevent the booking of appointments but may discourage people from calling back, which leaves the infection untreated and could result in its onward spread.”