Sexual and reproductive health services – your views wanted

A public consultation about proposed changes to Guy’s and St Thomas’ sexual and reproductive health services in Lambeth and Southwark has been launched.

The consultation is being carried out by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, supported by Lambeth Council and Southwark Council.

The views of patients, local people, staff and voluntary organisations are wanted before the consultation closes on Friday 30 September.

You can have your say by completing a questionnaire which is available online and in our sexual health clinics in Lambeth and Southwark.

You can also find out more and discuss the proposals with our staff at a public meeting – organised with Healthwatch Lambeth and Healthwatch Southwark – from 6-8pm on Thursday 22 September at Gilroy Hall, Cambridge House, 1 Addington Square, SE5 0HF.

Local councils are responsible for commissioning public health services including sexual and reproductive health services such as testing, treatment and contraception – they receive a funding grant from central Government

The amount of funding provided by central Government to councils for these services has been significantly reduced in 2015/16 and 2016/17, with further reductions expected in future, but at the same time demand is increasing

Therefore the Trust must consider ways of running its services in a different way – the aim of the public consultation is to set out these proposals and invite the views of patients, the public, key stakeholders and staff.

What is being proposed?

• We will continue to diagnose and treat the same number of patients
• We will refer more patients who attend clinics for routine sexual health tests to home self-testing by expanding and developing the existing SH:24 online testing service which has been running successfully since March 2015
• The number of centres where Guy’s and St Thomas’ provides sexual and reproductive health services will be reduced from six to three – it is proposed to no longer offer these services at Lloyd Clinic (in Guy’s Hospital), Vauxhall Riverside Health Centre (Vauxhall) or Artesian Health Centre (Bermondsey)
• Opening hours of the three remaining clinics will be increased to provide longer weekday and weekend opening hours – all three clinics will continue to offer both ‘walk-in’ clinics and appointments booked in advance.