Let's Talk About Sex - A Sexual Health Workshop

posted: 17/02/2012

This evening workshop aims takes place at GHT on Wednesday 14th March from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m.

The workshop aims to explore what sexual health means to you, learn more about how to look after your sexual health and is a chance to ask those questions that you have always wanted the answers to!

Food will be provided, and although there will not be a crèche, we may be able to support childcare.

To confirm a place, please email Nathan on or call us on 0161 274 499.

Nine standards for sexual health

posted: 21/01/2010

New standards for sexual health services aim to give everyone quality care wherever people live.
The launch of the new standards, including a leaflet version, “Standards for the management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs)” the first of their kind, come from the Medical Foundation for AIDS & Sexual Health (MedFash) and the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH). Leading professional groups involved in STIs and the Health Protection Agency have given them support.

Patient service quality leaflet too
The nine standards - a guide for all health staff and NHS commissioners - cover all aspects of STI management, from diagnosis and treatment to infection control. Importantly there is a leaflet for patients, explaining the quality of care you have a right to expect, such as being offered an appointment within 48 hours, and ‘open access’ to services (meaning you can use the service without needing to see your GP first).

Dr Immy Ahmed, former president of BASHH and Project Clinical Lead for the standards said:
“Through increased investment and innovations, significant achievements in STI services have been realised in recent years. These new standards represent a consolidation of best practice and the challenge now is for commissioners and STI providers to focus all our efforts on working together and implementing these standards effectively.”

Nine standards
The nine standards have been drawn up to help with commissioning STI services within a clinical network – there are three sexual health networks in NW England. Networks support specialists and community and primary care healthcare staff to work well together. If you want consistent high quality services, this is how it has to be done.

“There is now increased patient choice and wider availability of testing and treatment for STIs, and the aim is to put patients at the centre of their care. However, as highlighted in the 2008 review of the sexual health strategy undertaken by MedFASH for the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV, local implementation of the strategy is very variable,” explains Ruth Lowbury, Chief Executive of MedFASH.
”The standards, which include key performance indicators, are an important tool for commissioners and providers to set measurable performance criteria and monitor outcomes for their services, whether in NHS acute, community or primary care settings, or commissioned from the independent or third sectors.”
 

Baroness Gould, Chair of the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV commented: “The high rates of sexual ill health in the UK means local leadership is required to ensure STI management is adopted and maintained as a public health priority. These standards, with universal implementation, can bring about significant cost savings for the NHS by preventing re-infection, reducing transmission, and making the very most of the resources available.”
The launch of the standards is also timely as it directly follows the 2010/11 NHS Operating Framework, which places quality as the organising principle of the NHS.

The standards and leaflet are available to download from MedFash

Source 
 

Sexual Health in the NW

posted: 02/10/2008

The Sexual Health of the North West Conference 2008 was just a week ago and now almost all the conference papers and presentations (including on the 2007 NW HIV figures and one on criminalising HIV transmission) are now available on the conference website