Amelia wrote:
I just started the pill, although I had no intention of doing so…
I went to see my GP and asked for all the info. then decided I wanted the injection or coil, but he insisted I choose the pill WTF!?
I argued that I didnt want to with valid reasons and yet he just said its the best option for anyone my age…
Also my mate was on the pill, but wanted to have injections instead but they wouldn’t allow her to because she didn’t have any extreme reason too….
a few friends/relatives work in the NHS (including GPs, qualified nurses and emergency medical personnel) I had a chat with them about this situation.
It happens because its a short-term financial gain and the NHS is under-resourced partly due to our Government blowing money on wars etc but also due to social problems overstressing it.
your GP has to make a decision of the best treatment for the individual balanced against cost to the NHS/GIG and available resources in the area.
However, in many cases part of the decision has already been made for them by NHS management and central Government; NHS frontline staff are constantly being asked to drive down costs and more expensive treatment options are “simply not available”. Wales is classed as an “expensive high-maintenance area” for healthcare costs (have a look at the news or Assembly debates and you will see!) The money just isn’t there – London is going to spend it on bombing people in Iraq instead because thats what Middle England wants.
the contraceptive pills are the cheapest resource to deliver. Injections may be still classed as experimental treatment and not available in all areas; and they need nurses to deliver them – the same nurses who are also worked off their arses giving out flu jab (and in rural areas people are getting paranoid about bird flu).
The coil as a device implanted into the human body requires skilled staff and in many areas a hospital admission (or follow up visits), which costs more money and takes up more resources than just handing out a packet of pills. I do not know the demographics (population) of S Wales that well but would expect there are a lot of young ladies in their late teens who require reproductive health services…
Most hospitals are overstretched because they are filled up with old people receiving long-term treatment – and also younger people who are there because of often completely avoidable incidents such as violence leading to serious injury, or RTCs caused by excessive speed and lack of attention to road conditions.
You’ve also got a fair number of young (and not so young) people presenting to health care facilities (with a variety of physical and mental health problems) because of their over-use of recreational drugs – this takes up more resources and also hardens the attitudes of the NHS staff, even when the staff are often the same ages as the patients!
So perfectly blameless people like yourself and your friends are being given less effective treatment because others such as your local violent chavs are over-burdening the NHS – further, staff there are becoming demoralised and case-hardened by what they see every day and the caring professions are ceasing to care (and starting to control)
There is also an element of social control of girls/womens bodies – gender equality is no better than it was 20/30 years ago.
Its not right and not fair, but its British Society today..
Dunno if the attached leaflet may help BTW
