The best medicine: women using community health centres

In an environment of scarce resources and competition for the health dollar, there is considerable pressure to close facilities viewed as specialist or to amalgamate them into the mainstream. Women's health services are presently among services subject to cuts and amalgamation, often on the assumption that they duplicate services available from private general practitioners. Another widespread belief is that women's health centres attract a small, elite clientele of 'worried well' feminist extremists. This study examined such assumptions, using questionnaire data collected from 388 women attending women's health centres (62 per cent) and mixed-sex community health centres (38 per cent). Findings showed that these clients of all community health facilities were disadvantaged compared with the population overall. When clients of women's health centres and community health centres were compared, the client profiles were either much alike or women's health centre clients were even more disadvantaged, challenging the stereotype of these centres being used only by a privileged elite. Instead, it appears that the centres offer a distinctive array of services to a socioeconomically vulnerable clientele, not a substitute for care available elsewhere.