Sexual health clinics in England and Wales at ‘breaking point’ warns new report
The Local Government Association's report says attendance at STI clinics has "skyrocketed".
A report by the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned that sexual health clinics in England and Wales are at “breaking point”.
The report out today (Tuesday 15 November) indicates that attendance at clinics has “skyrocketed” while at the same time funding has fallen.
Ahead of the government’s Autumn Statement on Thursday (17 November) councils are calling for spending cuts to be reversed and long-term funding.
The LGA represents more than 350 councils in England and Wales. It says the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has found that there were more than four million consultations at sexual health services in 2021 – nearly 16 percent up from 2020 and 36 percent up from 2013.
The LGA reports £1 billion has been cut from local government public health grants between 2015/2016 and 2020/21 and that has seen a drop in spending on STI testing, contraception, and treatment in the last seven years.
In a statement, the LGA says “councils currently face a perfect storm as demand for services continuing to rise just as the price of providing them is also escalating dramatically.
“This risks hampering efforts to reduce levels of sexually transmitted infection, access to contraception, and teenage pregnancies.”
The LGA’s findings include:
- Nearly 2 million diagnostic tests for chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and HIV in 2021 – a 19 percent increase from 2020.
- The number of women seeking long-acting contraception doubled.
- There’s been a 20 percent increase in STIs in those over 65 between 2017 and 2019.
- A growth in chemsex in the UK.
The report also echoes concerns raised previously about sexual health clinics’ role in combatting the Monkeypox outbreak.
Councillor David Fothergill, the Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board says, warns that cuts to funding but an increase in services “is unsustainable and risks a reversal in the encouraging fall in some STIs and potential increases in unwanted pregnancies.”
He continues, “Cuts to spending on sexual health, as with other areas of public health expenditure, are a false economy. Looking forward to the Autumn Statement the Government must ensure sexual and reproductive health funding is increased to levels which do not jeopardise people’s sexual and reproductive health. Inadequate prevention and early intervention increase overall costs to the health service.”
James Woolgar, the Chair of the English HIV and Sexual Health Commissioners Group adds that the “increasing demand means that health inequality is widening”.
The All Party Parliamentary Party on HIV and Aids has called on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, and the Department for Health to take action.
This also comes as it has been confirmed that the UK government has reduced its funding to The Global Fund to tackle HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis.
Responding to Attitude’s request for comment a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson says, “We have provided more than £3.4 billion this year to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including sexual and reproductive health.
“Local authorities are responsible for providing open-access sexual and reproductive health services, including free and confidential HIV and STI testing, condoms, provision of the HIV prevention drug PrEP, vaccination, and contraception advice.”