It was much better when the STI clinic was next to the bus station. Easier to get to, and much more discrete. By that, I mean it was only an STI clinic, so unlikely that anyone in the waiting room would out you as you were all there for the same thing. Since it was outsourced to provide and moved to the other clinic, you could be sat in a waiting room with people waiting for other services. The first time I went, there were kids waiting for a clinic as well as an ENT Clinc going on. The receptionist was hardly subtle asking me which clinic I was there for and then repeating it at the top of her voice. Just to really top things, the nurse comes out to call me for my appointment wearing a lanyard emblazoned with something like “STI and GUM Services”.
It’s also now much harder to get an appointment, before you could just go for ‘screening’ but now you have to have symptoms to get an appointment and then wait for a triage nurse to call you before you get booked in.
I prefer the online services now, even if they do have a cost. That said, if anyone knows of one that will deliver to a different location, eg pick up from a Post Office counter, please let me know as it’s getting more and more difficult to intercept the post.
