Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, last week met with two of the UK’s leading sexual health charities – FPA and Brook – to discuss access to contraception in Haringey.

Women aged over 25 in Haringey are facing restrictions on accessing contraception. These women are unable to receive simple forms of contraception such as the oral pill, the contraceptive patch and the nuva ring at local clinical services. They are also being prevented from accessing cervical screening.

Haringey women now have to go to a GP in order to access these services. Many women, however, cannot afford to take time off to visit their GP surgery in order to access services relating to their sexual health. Drop in community clinics, which frequently offer wider opening hours, are therefore vital to ensuring that woman remain protected from cervical cancer, sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies.

Lynne Featherstone MP has now written to NHS North Central London to alert them to this situation, and asked them to investigate the issues raised by the FPA and Brook.

Following the meeting, Julie Bentley, Chief Executive of FPA and Juliet Hillier, Deputy Chief Executive of Brook commented:

“We are really pleased to have had the opportunity to talk to Lynne about some of the restrictions in accessing contraception women over 25 years old are facing in her constituency – particularly in the week that we launched our campaign to raise awareness of access to contraception services and choices.

“Lynne was really engaged in the issues and we hope that we can work together with her on contraception rights and choices in Haringey in the future”

Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“I am deeply concerned about access to contraception for Haringey residents. As a result of limitations placed on these services, woman in this constituency are facing serious threats to their health, which is an unacceptable situation.

“Alongside writing to NHS North London and alerting them to this, I am also assisting NHS Haringey with their historic funding problems, through my campaign for fairer health funding for the borough.”