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SEXUAL HEALTH SCREENING
A digital approach to sexual health screening
With screening services across the country faced with significant budget cuts, while certain sexually transmitted infections are on the rise, clinics are reaching crisis point as they attempt to do more with less. Rhys Powell from Idox Health discusses the progress made in sexual healthcare to date, the likely impact of reduced funding and why digital technology may be the antidote to the problem.
Over the years, significant progress has been made in delivering more accessible, effective and efficient sexual healthcare across the country. We’ve seen the service move from small, isolated cabins behind hospitals to the high street, with much of the stigma associated with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) now extinguished amongst its most susceptible 15-25 year old demographic. However, change is coming. Significant funding cuts to sexual health services are leaving clinics faced with the challenge of delivering the same level of care, the same availability and the same outputs with considerably less money.
The situation is now forming an interesting paradox – not only is funding decreasing, newly published figures are revealing a rise in certain STIs. According to Public Health England (PHE), instances of syphilis spiked by 20% between 2016 and 2017, with gonorrhoea increasing by 22%. Chlamydia testing in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services has also fallen by a worrying 61% since 2015. Already, the statistics point towards a lack of service provision borne out of the £600 million cut to councils’ public health budgets, with sexual health arguably taking the brunt. So, what’s the resulting impact?
Feeling the pinch – are we at crisis point?
The key issue lies in the fact that sexually transmitted infections are not deemed an
acute problem. They are not a matter of life and death and are therefore at risk of being an unworthy candidate for serious funding when put up against critical hospital services such as A&E. Treatment is also commissioned at a local
Significant funding cuts to sexual health services are leaving clinics faced with the challenge of delivering the same level of care, the same availability and the same outputs with considerably less money.
SEPTEMBER 2018
level, with local authorities taking responsibility for supporting the provision of a community- based triage and testing service, keeping – where possible – treatment outside of a hospital environment.
But with less money and more infections, sexual health clinics are heading towards a crisis point – the whole problem becomes compounded by a situation of too much of one thing and too little of another – without the required equilibrium to balance things out. Timely STI detection and treatment will not be the only elements impacted either. The ramifications are likely to be felt much wider, with a domino effect that may also affect teenage pregnancy rates, lead to a rise in long term conditions like HIV, and an increase in
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