College Tribune | April 2nd 2009
News
No more contraception as Health Centre suffers !"Cathy Buckmaster Contraceptive appointments are no longer available for students this year due to funding cutbacks. Dr. Sandra Tighe of the student health centre expressed her disappointment concerning the subject. “It’s extremely tough; we don’t like to turn people away but we’re trying to make extremely difficult decisions here. “We’ve decided to try and prioritise for students who are sick. We put special contraceptive clinics on with nurses to try to maximise appointments for students who are sick but those appointments were booked up two months ahead. Then I was very concerned that we would not have enough available staff. It’s just an extremely difficult situation.” Tighe also explains the circumstances that have led to their decision to eliminate any more contraceptive appointments. “It’s because of cutbacks and because we want to prioritise having slots for students who are sick. We have no contraceptive appointments left and we’re very overwhelmed at the minute in general. “As well however, there’s a half time nurse gone; that’s since Brenda Lenihan retired at the end of October. We can’t appoint another half time nurse because of budgetary cutbacks.” She also discusses the strain this has put on the health centre as a result of
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the cutbacks. “We are under serious pressure. There’s increased demand on the service anyway because there’s less money around and people in general are less well off so there are reduced resources. However, it doesn’t look like the resource situation is going to improve.” Tighe apologises to students for this outcome but explains it is out of their control. “We would like to apologise to the students; it’s not a situation we want to be in but in terms of prioritising our limited resources, we can’t do anything. I want to make clear it’s not what we want to do. “We will have some contraceptive slots available but there’s no way we can reach the demand. Something has to go and it’s better this way because at least people can plan for that as opposed to someone who gets sick and can’t afford to see a doctor. “It’s not that were refusing to prescribe contraceptives; if we could turn around and make these appointments, we could be filled up with contraception appointments and then where would sick students get? So it’s just a matter of trying to prioritise in a very difficult situation.” Joan, a second year Arts student, spoke about her disappointment concerning the cancellation of the contraceptive appointments. “It’s really expensive without these appointments
available. I had to pay 70 Euro to see another doctor. Because you need a prescription every six months, it works out to be 25 Euro a month which I just can’t afford.” “I don’t think it’s fair either that it only affects girls. It is hugely inconvenient for me and I think the services of the Health Centre are important for students, so slashing their funds isn’t acceptable.” Explaining the current predicament of the health centre, Tighe states “We’ve certainly suffered significantly. A loss of a half time nurse is a big loss. So anytime someone is doing anything else or is away, I can’t replace them. “I’ve done my best. We’ve raised the issue with the board, but there just doesn’t appear to be any available funds. If we had funds available, increasing administrative support and replacing the nurse would be priority.” President of the Students’ Union, Aodhán Ó Deá also commented on the subject stating the Union’s lack of awareness on the matter. “This issue has only been brought to our attention recently and we are working on it. “I understand the Student Health Centre is under tight budget constraints but this situation is obviously not acceptableas provision of contraception is a vital service.”
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