A SEXUAL health centre should be open to the public seven days a week, according to one campaigner. The Weston Integrated Health Centre (WISH) at Weston General Hospital is only open to the public on Monday and Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday and Friday

A SEXUAL health centre should be open to the public seven days a week, according to one campaigner.The Weston Integrated Health Centre (WISH) at Weston General Hospital is only open to the public on Monday and Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday and Friday mornings.Staff from the clinic carry out testing in the community to combat the spread of serious sexual infections under the No Worries project at the times the centre is closed during the week.But Andrew Rogers, who lives in Moorland Road, Weston, believes the centre should be open for longer.In a letter to the Weston & Somerset Mercury he said: "Weston General Hospital has had £500,000 for this new sexual health centre. The centre is closed and locked half the week when it should be dealing with an epidemic."Clearly the clinic should be open seven days a week and properly staffed."Last week the Mercury revealed the WISH centre is treating more than 100 people a week with sexually transmitted diseases. The clinic was built in September last year following the award of a grant of £180,000 from the Department of Health. A Weston Area Health NHS Trust spokesman said: "This time last year Weston's sexual health service was situated in a cramped temporary building on the hospital site, with consulting rooms which offered poor levels of privacy and dignity."Also, because the service was only available for two half-day sessions per week then, many patients had to travel to Bristol to obtain their advice and care."Now, Weston has a new purpose-built £180,000 clinic, which is separate from the main hospital, with a separate entrance, and designed specifically for the service being delivered, and which is open for more sessions per week. "We need to fully establish this expanded and improved service and study the level of requirement for it before we decide, in consultation with our service commissioners, whether investment needs to be increased to further extend the opening times.