Archers morning-after scare would have been much worse in Surrey

Phoebe Aldridge (Lucy Morris) should be grateful she lives in Borsetshire. Photograph: Gary Moyes/BBC

It is just as well that Phoebe Aldridge had her tryst with Constantin, the Latvian fruit picker, in Borsetshire (‘There was a problem with the condom!’ – A Month in Ambridge, 16 August) rather than Surrey, where she would have struggled to get a morning-after pill, let alone sexual health screening.

Surrey county council has reduced the budget for sexual health services by more than a third, leading its service provider, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, to cut 30-plus contraception and sexual health screening clinics and the number of locations from 17 to just three for the county. Phoebe would not have been able to drop into a sexual health clinic and would have struggled to book an appointment on CNWL’s slow and inefficient online/telephone booking system.

To make matters worse, the incomparable Blanche Heriot unit at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, where Phoebe could have just turned up and received contraceptive cover and health screening in one visit, is also facing closure with no adequate replacement being offered for the 15,000 patients who rely on its sexual health, HIV and genitourinary medicine services.

The Archers has a fine tradition of raising awareness of wider social issues, so expect to hear one of the characters quote the FPA’s Unprotected Nation 2015 report that every £1 considered a “saving” in sexual and reproductive health could actually cost £86 due to the cost of unintended pregnancies and more sexually transmitted infections.
Stephen Fash
Chobham, Surrey

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