Re-audit of referral compliance of chlamydia-positive women from a family planning clinic.

BACKGROUND Chlamydia infections represent a major public health problem, with a prevalence of 6-10% in family planning clinic (FPC) attendees. There has been recent concern expressed about the management of these patients in terms of treatment and follow-up. OBJECTIVE An audit was carried out to monitor referral compliance and outcome with care pathways of women attending our FPC who were found to be positive for chlamydia. SETTING The Palatine Centre FPC and genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics in Manchester, UK. DESIGN Analysis of case notes was undertaken of women who tested positive for chlamydia between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2000. RESULTS Of the 1935 women who were tested for chlamydia, 5.1% (n = 99) were positive. The age range was 15-41 (mean, 25) years. Treatment was verified in 90% (n = 89) of cases, of which 85% (n = 84) attended a GUM clinic. Despite reasonable efforts, information on outcome was not obtainable for 10 women. The median time between referral and treatment was 5-6 days. Sexual contacts were traced in 57% (n = 56) of cases. CONCLUSIONS We found our referral compliance and treatment rates to be excellent, demonstrating that GUM and family planning services can work well in partnership from different locations. However, this audit has shown low performance in partner notification and we recommend that more effort be directed to this aspect.