Rapid Responses to:

LETTERS: Babatunde A Gbolade, Wai-Ching Leung, Martin Bland, and Julia Hippisley-Cox Teenage pregnancy rates and the age and sex of general practitioners BMJ 2000; 321: 381a [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

NHS numbers on form HSA4

Helen Massil   (15 August 2000)

NHS numbers on form HSA4 15 August 2000
Helen Massil Send response to journal: Re: NHS numbers on form HSA4	Editor - A recent letter from Gbolade (1) suggested that there should be a mandatory requirement for a woman's NHS number to be entered on form HSA4 (the abortion notification form). We feel that this idea may create difficulties. In South East London (and presumably elsewhere in the UK) many women are terrified of loss of confidentiality when they request a termination and will not discuss it with their parents or partner. If they do not hold their own NHS cards, they will be quite unable to produce their number. In community clinics it is not uncommon for permission to contact the GP to be withheld, or for false names to be used. The requirement for an NHS number would therefore add another barrier to the provision of care for vulnerable, frightened women (and also an outbreak of false numbers, adding nothing to the accuracy of public health statistics). Helen Massil Director of Reproductive Health, Community Health South London Lesley Bacon Consultant in Reproductive Health, Community Health South London (1)Gbolade Teenage pregnancy rates and the age and sex of general practitioners - Record linkage analysis could have been used. BMJ 2000; 321: 381 - 25th august 2000