Assessment of workload: intrauterine device/intrauterine system provision

The Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care (FFPRHC) has recently published Service Standards for Workload in Contraception, which state that a minimum of 20 minutes should be made available for intrauterine device/hormonal system (IUD/IUS) provision. This document acknowledges that there is currently little formal evidence relating to assessment of time taken for providing various contraceptive methods. The Abacus Clinics in Liverpool, UK provide an average of 1,300 IUD/IUS fittings in a year. We monitored the time taken for IUD/IUS provision over a 4-week period. Our study revealed that the average time taken for all types of IUD/IUS provision is significantly more than the minimum recommended by the FFPRHC.