AQW 3671/22-27

Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim

Tabled Date: 28/09/2022
Answered On Date: 25/10/2022
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health what steps his Department is taking to ensure that HIV and sexual health services are (i) fully funded; and (ii) meet the needs of local communities.

Answer:

My Department has been working hard to address the service gaps and pressures within HIV and sexual health services across all 5 Trusts in Northern Ireland.

The PrEP service in NI was established three years ago in 2018/19 with the use of non-recurrent transformation monies into both the Belfast and Western Trust on a pilot basis. In 2020/21, due to Covid related pressures the Belfast Trust service ceased at the end of March 2020 with staff being redeployed to support COVID-19 related pressures. As a result, all patients accessing the Belfast Clinic were advised they could be repatriated to their Trust of residence which escalated the strategic regional direction to develop HIV PrEP services locally as a 5 Trust pilot and this approach was widely supported by patients and clinical teams.

Learning from both Belfast and Western Trust clinics throughout the pandemic included an acknowledgement that the local lab services struggled to cope with additional PrEP work at a time whenever Covid pressures were rising. A solution had been secured by accessing lab support services with the online STI Testing Service “SH:24”. Again, this was funded through non-recurring transformational monies and was deemed as vital in the delivery of both WHSCT and BHSCT PrEP pilot services.

Newly developed monitoring reporting indicates that as at 31 March 2022 there were 1,399 patients on PrEP across NI HSC Trusts.

And in looking at online STI access as at 31 March 2022 there were 34,854 requests for a range of conditions including HIV, Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea, Syphilis and Hep B& C

Over 40% of NI Online STI users had never been to a GUM clinic and a further 15% had not been to one for over a year. This means that the service reached a different group of people than traditional GUM services

I am pleased to be able to confirm that £1.8m of recurrent funding has been made available in 2022/23 to help address demand for HIV and sexual health services in Northern Ireland. The aim of this funding is to support PrEP clinics in each Trust and to fund 24/7 access to STI online testing

In terms of meeting the needs of local communities my Department draws on various sources to inform improvements in service delivery such as the annual HIV report as produced by PHA; service user engagement through the SHIN (Sexual Health Information Network) and in linking with the staffing groups involved in HIV care including doctors, nursing staff, health advisors, health care support workers, specialist pharmacy staff, social workers, specialist psychology staff and administration staff.

My department also refers to the policy context when considering service gaps and priorities. These include the Sexual Health Promotion and Action Plan 2008 – 13, 2015 addendum; SHAP (Sexual Health Action Plan) progress report; RQIA report; HIV elimination Plan/UN 95-95-95 as well as the CEDAW (SRH) recommendations

I acknowledge that there has not been a Sexual Health Strategy since the previous strategy lapsed in 2015, following a two-year addendum to the original strategy.

Since 2015, the sexual health landscape has changed significantly – particularly since the pandemic began.

We now have an opportunity to take a fresh look at a new action plan, and to determine necessary governance and accountability structures that need to be in place to enable any strategic approach to sexual health development and improvement to succeed.

A considerable amount of work is currently underway across the Department, and across various other Departments, that has a significant impact on sexual and reproductive health, wellbeing and safety, and this is a good opportunity to take stock of this work, identify areas of overlap and agree priority areas where collaborative working could help us to achieve collective goals and improve sexual health outcomes for the population.