Teenage Health

Port Isaac practice has a special interest in the services provided to young people. Research, both local and national has proven that there are barriers which prevent young people from accessing services they need:

Having to wait in waiting rooms where other members of the community may recognise them (particularly members of the family/close relations)

Having to take time off school/college to access appointment times normally offered by services

Difficulty accessing services in rural areas with inadequate public transport services

The practice, therefore tries to ensure that everyone within the practice, from frontline staff to doctors recognises the importance of removing any barriers to allow easy access to their services for young people.

The main principle of our teenage access policy is to enable a young person presenting at any of our main surgeries, Port Isaac, Bridge Medical Centre and St Kew to obtain help and advice at a time convenient to them secure in the knowledge that regardless of their age, their confidentiality will be respected.

To help improve and maintain good access for teenagers the practice has worked alongside Wadebridge Comprehensive School and Wadebridge and Camel Estuary Practice to develop a Priority Appointment/Green card scheme for teenagers at the school so that they can easily get an appointment with a doctor or nurse.

We also have a notice board and appropriate leaflets in the foyers of our Port Isaac, Bridge Medical Centre and St Kew surgeries which are dedicated to young peoples’ issues – hopefully these are easily accessible to teenagers without them actually having to come into the main part of the surgery if they do not wish to.

We have three members of reception staff who have an interest in teenage health. Tina (Bridge Medical Centre), Sally (Port Isaac) and Susan (St Kew) are Young Person champions and have attended training on communication, health and sexual issues specifically for young people.

There is a website www.eefo.net which specialises in teenage issues and is a very useful site to gain information on many of the issues that young people face in every day life.

Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust has implemented a series of quality standards designed to reduce inequalities for young people (13-19 year olds), which organisations can achieve if they demonstrate that they are providing a young person friendly service. The practice is currently approved as providing services to young people at level one and we are actively trying to gain the level three standard.

We would welcome any comments/suggestions from our teenage patients to help us to improve the services we are providing. Please put your comments in any of the suggestion boxes or tell one of the members of staff, when you see them.

Tammy (Saltern), our lead nurse has included below a paragraph on two services we provide, which will help keep teenagers healthy.

Human Papilloma Vaccine (HPV)

The objective of the HPV immunisation programme is to provide 3 doses of HPV vaccine to females before they reach an age when the risk of HPV infection increases and they are at subsequent risk of cervical cancer.
The vaccine protects against the two virus types that cause 70% of cervical cancers. The vaccine is offered to girls aged between 12-18yrs and consists for 3 injections over a 6 month period with the practice nurse.
The vaccine does not protect against other sexually transmitted infections.
Appointments for the vaccine can be made by contacting the receptionist.

Chlamydia
Port Isaac practice is a chlamydia testing surgery. As chlamydia is on the increase in young people our aim is to screen all patients aged 15-24 years annually. Chlamydia is easily treated but if left untreated can cause pelvis inflammatory disease and infertility. More than 80% of women and 50% of men will have no symptoms which is why it’s important to be tested regularly. Testing kits are available at all sites. Tests can either be done at the surgery or taken away with you.