Issue - meetings

Dr Liz Brutus introduced a report that provided an update on sexual and reproductive health in Slough.

The Board received a presentation outlining key indicators and trends relating to sexual health, compared Slough with other South East England areas and benchmarked Slough against other local authorities matching its demographic and socioeconomic profile.

It was noted that the key challenges for Slough were: HIV, abortion, LARC (Long-Acting Reversible Contraception) and Chlamydia.  New HIV diagnoses in Slough were higher than average but had been falling most recently.  There was increasingly good HIV testing coverage and it was believed that this was contributing to reducing late diagnoses.  Abortion rates in Slough remained high, especially amongst over 25 year olds.  The use of LARC was far below the England and regional average; evidence suggested that this was a significant factor contributing to the higher abortion rate.  Chlamydia screening was a challenge and lower rates of screening were likely to be contributing to the rising rates of pelvic inflammatory disease.

The underlying causes of the key challenges were discussed.  The Board was advised that the majority of people were accessing sexual health services through The Garden Clinic.  There had been a significant reduction in the use of General Practice surgeries for everyday contraceptive advice.  It was explained that discussions would be undertaken with Primary Health Care leads to establish ways of encouraging people to access these services through primary care.

In relation to the use of contraception, the Board was advised that amongst the population of Slough there was a general resistance to using LARC.  In an effort to improve uptake it was suggested that pharmacists or healthcare assistants might be best placed to communicate the benefits of LARC.  Discussions with Clinical Commissioning Groups would be initiated to consider co-commissioning opportunities.  However, it was recognised that the current offer to General Practitioners was not financially attractive, so consideration of how this could be improved was required.

(Tessa Lindfield joined the meeting)

The Board noted that Milton Keynes was facing similar challenges to Slough and Members felt it would be beneficial to contact practitioners there to see what learning could be garnered.  There was some discussion about undertaking a visit; however it was agreed that it would be a better use of time to make initial telephone calls to ask if representatives from Milton Keynes would be available to attend a future Board meeting; if this was not possible, further consideration could be given to visiting Milton Keynes.

Resolved –

(a)  Dr Jim O’Donnell, the Director of Public Health and Superintendent Sarah Grahame to contact their counterparts in Milton Keynes to discuss the approach partner organisations adopted to address sexual health challenges.

(b)  The Director of Public Health to discuss with Primary Health Care lead members ways of encouraging people to access sexual health services through primary care.  

(c)  An update report be provided to a future Slough Wellbeing Board meeting.