LONDON, January 14, 2006  –  A hard-hitting report launched yesterday by sexual health charities shows an alarming lack of local National Health Service (NHS) planning to improve sexual health in England, despite considerable central Government funding being made available to do so.

The report, a review of Primary Care Trust (PCT) Local Delivery Plans 2005-2008, finds that despite the introduction of specific targets to tackle poor sexual health in England, up to half of PCTs fail to mention plans to improve key areas such as faster access to sexual health services.

Perhaps more worryingly, there was only limited evidence of plans for service redesign and improvement necessary to achieve improvements in sexual health generally, and only 30% mentioned targeted planned investment in sexual health, despite the Government’s additional £250m local funding for 2006/7 and 2007/8.

The report, jointly published by Brook, fpa, MedFASH, National AIDS Trust and Terrence Higgins Trust found:

• Only 52% mentioned abortion services, and of those that did, it was primarily in the context of improving access for teenagers.  Government statistics show that women in their twenties are most likely to seek an abortion.
• More than 50% failed to mention HIV, the fastest growing serious health condition in the UK, and nearly 50% did not mention planned work on reducing gonorrhoea diagnoses – which is another Government health target.  Gonorrhoea is the second most common bacterial STI in the UK.
• Over 40% failed to mention tackling sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in general, and the same number made no mention of contraception services.  Sexual health in the UK is currently amongst the worst in Western Europe, and we have the highest teenage pregnancy rates.
• One third of PCTs made no mention of plans to achieve the 48 hour access target for GUM services. Yet around one in three people remain sexually active whilst waiting for an appointment, driving up new infection rates.
• Almost a quarter (23%) of PCTs did not mention increasing the uptake of Chlamydia screening among15-24 year olds despite a 223% increase in new diagnoses between 1995 and 2004.  One in 10 sexually active young people is now estimated to be infected with Chlamydia.

The charities are urging the Department of Health and the NHS to accord sexual health improvement top tier priority status for PCTs, and to ensure adequate funding to support this.  They also want to see a radical shift in thinking about the delivery of sexual health services, and better, more consistent planning.

“We are extremely dismayed that despite the public health White Paper, despite the targets, and despite the considerable extra investment that is coming to them in 2006, too few PCTs appear to be planning to take serious advantage of the chance to improve our appalling record on sexual health,.” said Anne Weyman, Chief Executive of fpa.

“Sexual health remains too far down the list of local health priorities and is overshadowed by the pressure on PCTs to achieve financial balance.”

From the “grass roots”, Andrew Harley, a lay member of a consumer advisory panel to a largely rural-based Primary Care Trust, told UK Gay News that the report came as no shock to him.

“For 18 months I have been trying to highlight sexual health and the poor lack of service delivery,” he said.  “Nothing seems to have been done.”

He said that while his local hospital did have a GU clinic, it was a “well kept secret”.

“Their phone number is not even in the local phone book,” he revealed.

“Research by Terrence Higgins Trust and others clearly shows that there is a reluctance to consult a general practitioner –– especially among gay men.

“Yet there is little publicity explaining the relatively anonymous facilities offered by a GU clinic, let alone where it is.”

He added that there also needed to be a radical re-think of the health promotion aspect.

“In the 1980s, the UK led the world with the ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’ campaign in the early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis.  Now, the country – as the report points out – has one of the worst sexual health records in Western Europe.”