New Sexual Health Clinic in North Yorkshire
It'll be operational by 1st July 2015
A new service providing sexual health advice, support and treatment for young people and adults is being launched across North Yorkshire.
North Yorkshire County Council has awarded the contract for the provision of its new Integrated Sexual Health Service to York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The Trust will work with highly experienced voluntary sector sexual health organisations and GP practices to provide locally based services which will be accessed through a central booking system.
The new service will be available free to all who require it, and will include the provision of contraception; STI testing and treatment services; community outreach services; and support services for people with HIV and their carers.
County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Public Health and Prevention said:
“Commissioning public health services became our responsibility in 2013 and this gave us a great opportunity to reshape and improve the sexual health services available to people in North Yorkshire
Last year we undertook a consultation exercise about the sexual heath requirements of our residents, which provided the information we needed to retender our existing contracts to meet local demands. **The new integrated service will be simpler for people to use and we believe that it will provide them with the very best help and advice available”.
Dr Lincoln Sargeant , Director of Public Health for North Yorkshire said:
“Taking care of your sexual health means more than being free from sexually transmitted infections (STIs), or not having to face an unplanned pregnancy as a result of ineffective contraception, or no contraception at all. It means taking care of your own health, your partner's health and decisions about relationships. Providing an effective sexual health service is an important part of our wider work to support the physical, mental and social wellbeing of all our communities”.
The new service will be operational by 1 July 2015, following the award of the ÂŁ3 million contract in January 2015. It replaces a complex range of services previously provided through nine different contracts.