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Public Health minister announces further £15 million for sexual health clinics

  • Published date:
    20 July 2005

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint today announced a further £15m to help transform sexual health services across the country.

The funding, to be added to the £130m already committed for genitor-urinary medicine (GUM) services in the Public Health White Paper, will be made available immediately for use over the next year - allowing sexual health clinics to improve their buildings, expand their services, increase capacity and reduce waiting times.

Caroline Flint said:

'This further funding proves we remain committed to improving the sexual health of the nation and continue to make it a government priority.

'We have already invested £300m as part of our Public Health Paper - the largest amount ever for this area - and are now taking it one step further by committing an extra £15m this year to modernise sexual health GUM clinics.

'The extra cash will enable the NHS to make immediate improvements to buildings and facilities - allowing GUM clinics to expand their services as well as improving the overall experience for patients. In turn, this will lead to more and more people being offered a better service and access to early treatment.'

One of the main aims of the sexual health strategy is to relieve the burden on traditional services by providing screening and testing in a range of different settings such as pharmacies and GP surgeries.

Notes to editor

1. The extra £15m funding will be available for 05/06.

2. £300m (over 3 years) for sexual health was announced as part of the Public Health White Paper 'Choosing Health' in November 2004. This includes:

  • a £50m sexual health campaign to educate people on the danger of the top five STIs;
  • £130m to improve GUM services to ensure that all patients will be seen in GUM clinics within 48 hours by 2008;
  • £80m to ensure the National Chlamydia Screening Programme covers the whole of England by March 2007; and
  • £40m for upgrading contraceptive services including an audit to identify and address the gaps in contraceptive services.

3. The first ever National Strategy for sexual health was launched in 2001/2 - backed by over £73m investment.

4. Sexual health now plays a key role in local delivery plans - in particular, 48 hour access to GUM clinics, reducing gonorrhoea rates and implementing the chlamydia screening programme.

5. Further information can be found from the link above.

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