It’s not just us!

An article in today’s Guardian is headlined “Sexual health shake-up in south-west London unsafe, experts say”. It reports that, as concerns grow about the funding of sexual health services across England, 14 experts in the field at St George’s hospital in south-west London have warned that a major shake-up of sexual health services in three London boroughs will lead to more unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. The doctors have written to NHS and local council leaders branding the money-saving changes “unsafe, unworkable and unsustainable”. In an echo of what is happening in Surrey the doctors claim that the Central London community healthcare NHS trust’s plans for running the services from 1 October are not clinically safe. In Surrey the BHU patients campaign have heard alarming stories about the lack of preparation by Central & North West London NHS Trust (CNWL) when they took over the community clinic services in April, the failure to provide appointment and supplies systems that are fit for purpose, the inadequacy of the on-line test kits and the loss of over 30 weekly clinics so that contraception and sexual health screening are now only available in 3 locations compared with 17 previously. As a result patients are unable to get appointments, or are simply not able to get to more distant clinics, with potentially catastrophic results in unwanted pregnancies and undiagnosed sexually transmitted infections. CNWL is a London based organisation which is seeking to apply its standard model of service on a county that does not have the extensive public transport links of London, and where distances are far greater than simply looking at a map of Surrey would suggest. It is telling that the two local providers – Ashford & St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust – chose not to bid for the integrated sexual health & HIV services contract for Surrey because they knew it could not be delivered within the severely reduced budget. CNWL, the only bidder, had no such qualms it would seem. We are aware from CNWL’s Board papers that CNWL missed its sexual health services NHSI performance indicators in May and is struggling to meet its financial targets. The woeful performance of its representatives at last week’s BHU Patients ‘Information and Discussion Event’, when they attempted simply to give a ‘sales pitch’ for their standard model of service without any regard for the anxieties and distress of the patients attending the meeting, reflects their lack of understanding. Last week’s meeting revealed that Ashford & St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust and CNWL are far from ready to ensure a safe transition of service for BHU patients. That is why we say that it would be unsafe to transfer the BHU service to CNWL on 1 October and that the existing BHU contract should be extended for a further six months to enable the continuing care needs of the BHU patients to be properly identified and provision made for those (thought to number over 3,000) who either do not come within the remit of the integrated Surrey contract as currently specified or who could not reasonably be expected to travel to Buryfields Clinic, Guildford, even supposing that Buryfields has the capacity to take the 15,000 attendances currently seen each year at BHU (which it clearly does not!).