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For any interview requests with our team of specialists, please contact our press officer Sarah Bruce-Ball on 020 7631 0090 or 07 976 978 683. Alternatively by email at sarahj@samedaydoctor.co.uk.
Instant HIV Tests: Sunday Times, December 14 2008
Clinics Offering 60 Second Results Can Save Weeks of Worry, by Isabella Lynne.
It’s the festive season again, bringing with it parties aplenty and, if you are single, the real possibility that you will leave one of those parties with someone you didn’t arrive with. You might have packed condoms in your satin clutch bag, but can you honestly put your hand on your heart and say that you always, always use them?
I know I can’t. As a single thirtysomething, I like to think I’m pretty grown-up, but when it comes to unprotected sex, my attitude is shamefully cavalier. Talking to my girlfriends, I know I’m not alone. We know we should use condoms, but it’s easy to think, "I’m on the pill, I don’t need protection, do I?”
The answer of course, is yes. The number of people with HIV rose last year by 6% to just more than 77,000, and the number of diagnoses has risen steadily since the 1990s. As a teenager, unwanted pregnancy was the spectre that loomed over the morning after, but now it is HIV, despite or perhaps because of our casual attitude to sex. The last test I had was at an NHS clinic, and because I had been in a five-year relationship, I wasn’t unduly worried about the results, which took two weeks to arrive.
However, a string of international love affairs in the past four years had left me with a nagging sense of anxiety. According to the Health Protection Agency, 4,260 new heterosexual cases were diagnosed in 2007, most of them were probably infected abroad. In the past year, my anxiety mounted to outright panic: I convinced myself I had taken too many risks, and I must be HIV-positive.
The idea of going for a test, spending a morning sitting in a grim NHS waiting room, followed by an agonising two week wait for results was too much to contemplate. Then, three months after a hot weekend with a lover in Moscow, I realised that living with the anxiety and uncertainty was too stressful, and I had to find out, that very day.
There are now clinics country-wide offering 60 second results. I chose the samedaydoctorTM on Wimpole Street, W1. With no appointment needed, I walked into the clinic that afternoon, where a nurse talked me through the procedure. They perform about 200 tests a week (largely for anxious heterosexuals in their twenties and thirties), but only about 1% of these are positive. “It’s normal for clients to be convinced they are HIV positive, it’s almost a disease in itself,” says Dr Laurence Gerlis, the founder. The clinic has on-site counsellors to deal with this and to offer support to HIV positive patients.
Because the result was available so fast, the experience wasn’t a horror show. A spot of my blood was dropped into a plastic box and, within a minute, the nurse smiled at me, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re absolutely fine,” she said. The price for my new peace of mind: £130. Now, all I really want for Christmas are condoms.
The Wharf Newspaper: October 2008
Shops on the Wharf have been hit hard by the credit crunch with less money being spent on frivolous items.
Manager at Birley Sandwiches Robert Hawkins said: "We have definitely seen a drop in the level of business in Canary Wharf. Even though we're based in an area where there are high earners, we notice a direct link between events in the market and our profit.
"For example, as soon as Bear Stearns collapsed our slaed dropped by 20 per cent -- literally from one week to the next."
However, despite the gloom, one Wharf business is booming. Private walk-in clinic samedaydoctorTM has seen its patient numbers surge in recent weeks.
Since opening its Canary Wharf branch in September, the clinic has seen around 45 patients a week instead of 20 per week as expected.
But why are people so willing to pay money to see a doctor when they could get one free on the NHS?
samedaydoctorTM spokeswoman Sarah Bruce-Ball said, "During a recession people tend to smoke less, drink less and take more time to look after themselves properly. Interestingly, the peak for Canary Wharf was on Friday October 1, when the economy was at its worst, and the following Monday was quieter. We assume because the market went up again."
The Marylebone Journal: October 2008
Anyone remember free love? The sixties were apprently full of it. During the sexual revolution you couldn't even huddle in a group for warmth without it turning into an orgy.
A decade later and wife swapping was all the rage. Here partygoers feasted on avacado, Blue Nun and the sounds of Santana before chucking their car keys into a bowl. But the fun and games ended abruptly in the 1980s. Suddenly we were in the grip of an epidemic called AIDS.
The government launched an aggressive public awareness campaign while the nation panicked, and in this climate of fear came a wave of prejudice and misinformation. People were frightened to sit on toilet seats, to shake hands or to share knitting needles.
Nowadays, far more is known about HIV and AIDS, the facts are largely separated from fiction. Yet HIV in the UK seems to be increasing in parallel with increases in other sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies. "Gay men in London have the highest incidence of HIV of anywhere in the world," says Dr Laurence Gerlis, founder of samedaydoctorTM, which specialises in sexually transmitted diseases. "Incidence is the number of cases divided by the number of people who could get that illness. So it's not in terms of absolute numbers, but in terms of percentage risk of catching HIV."
The Times: May 2008
The logic of a DIY Prostate Cancer Screening Test Kit seems impeccable. Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) is a protein secreted into the blood by the prostate gland. An abnormally raised level of PSA in the blood can be an indication that you have Prostate Cancer.
Well, I’d love to be able to regale you with the results of my prostate self-test, but I can’t. I paid £11.95 online to a Stockport based supplier called SelfDiagnosis Ltd and waited a few days for my box to arrive in the post. When it did, I tried to flow the instructions, but they defeated me. Not only did I still not know if I had a high PSA level but I felt stupid too. Surely Dr Hammad Malik of samedaydoctorTM, a private clinic with branches in London and Manchester, could decode the kit for me. And he did “This is very confusing,” he said, “And it won’t work.”
The Sunday Mirror Magazine: March 2008
"I’ve booked an emergency appointment for a mouth ulcer." Expect gritting of teeth if you bag an emergency slot without good cause. "It’s irritating when somebody turns up with something trivial like an ingrown toenail", says Dr Laurence Gerlis of samedaydoctorTM.
"Do you mind looking at my family member too?" This can be a real pain, admits Dr Gerlis, "I remember being a newly qualified GP and on my very first day a family of eight walked in. If two people have a problem they need two consultants."
FHM Magazine: May 2008
Name: Dr Laurence Gerlis of samedaydoctor.co.uk Age?: 50 something Where?: London How much do you get paid for doing this?: £110 per HIV Test, but there are overheads like lab fees What are the hours like?: Long. As well as maybe 50 hours in the week, 8am to 7pm, I often do a weekend shift
The Mail on Sunday: March 2008
Maureen Lipman's playwright daughter on the shock of discovering she had Bell's Palsy
It was autumn 1998; I was 24 years old and embarking on a career as a playwright.
I was due to begin a year as writer-in-residence at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, and professionally at least, I had plenty to smile about.
In fact, Bell's Palsy is an acquired facial paralysis, typically affecting one side of the face.
It derives its medieval sounding name not, as I first thought, because early sufferers were obliged to ring a bell to herald their approach, but in honour of Charles Bell (1774-1842), a Scottish surgeon/anatomist known for his guide for artists, Essays On The Anatomy Of Expression In Painting.
Bell's Palsy can take days to fully develop, and the worsening disfigurement is deeply distressing.
Dr Laurence Gerlis of samedaydoctorTM says, "It looks devastating and people often think they have had a stroke because the symptoms are similar, although paradoxically a stroke affects less of the face and it spares the forehead.
"So Bell's Palsy is awful psychologically, but most people do recover."
The Daily Mail: March 2008
Tired? Don't assume it's your lifestyle, you could be diabetic, over 60,000 Britons are unaware they have diabetes.
Feeling permanently tired is the story of many people's lives. While most of us put it down to our busy lifestyles, for thousands of Britons chronic tiredness is actually a sign of something far more worrying, diabetes. Over 60,000 Britons have the condition yet don't know it, according to a study published earlier this month. A further 500,000 are thought to be "borderline" cases, at risk of developing diabetes. With advice on healthy eating and exercise, these half-a-million people could be prevented from developing the disease, if they knew they were at risk.
Once it develops, diabetes is still controllable if properly treated. But living with undiagnosed diabetes is extremely dangerous. As the study's lead researcher, Dr Tim Holt, from Warwick University, explained: "It's important that we find patients with diabetes so they can be treated and to prevent the heart problems they are prone to."
"Diabetes is not a condition to be taken lightly," adds Dr Laurence Gerlis, Medical Advisor to the Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust. "Every year, 5,000 diabetics have a limb amputation due to nerve damage, that's 100 people a week." Other long-term complications can include blindness and kidney disease.
Campaigns
Escalator Panels at Oxford Circus Underground Station: November 2007
Poster Campaign in London Theatres, Clubs and Pubs: 2007-2008
London Underground and Manchester Tram Networks: January 2008
Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships Program: 2008
Special Health Screen Postcard Campaign: 2008
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