Satellite family planning clinics are set to be opened in deprived areas of Oxford to encourage teenagers to use the service.

The £20,000 plans follow a fall in young patients using the Alec Turnbull Clinic after it was moved to the city centre from east Oxford in April.

In the first five months following the relocation, the number of women under 20 using the service dropped by a third -- from 600 to 400. There was also a 25 per cent reduction in general patients.

Oxford city councillors, who feared the move would cause a decline in use by teenagers in east Oxford, asked Oxford City Primary Care Trust to explain how it was rectifying the problem. At the council's health overview and scrutiny sub-committee, PCT workers said they wanted to set up three satellite clinics, in east Oxford, Rose Hill and Barton.

The areas have a high number of vulnerable people, including "black minority ethnic" communities, people living on low incomes and young people at risk of unintended pregnancies.

Although sites were difficult to find, Union Street has been suggested as a suitable base. Oxfordshire family planning director Dr Elizabeth Greenhall said: "It's difficult for young people to get over the image problem of their GPs and that's why we need to support their own services.

"Now is the time to look for sites in east Oxford. They would be open at least once a week at first to complement the main service, and would be set up to reach people in those areas.

"It's quite a challenge to find the right sites and will depend on what's available and publicising them in a way that is acceptable to young people."

Dr Greenhall said the Alec Turnbull Clinic moved from Manzil Way, off Cowley Road, to the Radcliffe Infirmary to be closer to genito-urinary medicine (GUM), which treats patients for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Further services would be added when a dedicated sexual health clinic was opened in the city centre by 2010.

She said: "Not all our patients need GUM as well, but some do. Young people tend to experiment with a lot of different sexual partners and are therefore more at risk from STIs.

"It is now a one-stop-shop, and they wouldn't get that care in Cowley Road. In the future, we're likely to have young people's counselling, youth workers, and someone who can help with social problems like benefits. The more services we can offer them, the better."

The sub-committee welcomed the plans, but said they should have been introduced before the clinic was relocated.

Chairman Paul Sargent said: "It doesn't look as if there was that much consultation done before the service moved and we warned there would be a drop off in usage."