Sexual health service budgets slashed as sexually transmitted infection rates on the rise

SEXUAL health services across our region have seen their budgets slashed despite rates of sexually transmitted infections remaining high.
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In Portsmouth the amount spent on STI testing and treatment and sexual health advice, prevention and promotion has slumped in real terms from £2,348,368 in 2015/16 to £2,014,000 in 2020/21 – a drop of 14 per cent. In Hampshire the picture is even more dire as the amount has plummeted from £7,965,131 to £5,303,000 – a massive 33.4 per cent.

Across England sexual health services have seen £221m or 29 per cent cut from their annual spending in the five years to March 2021, analysis of government figures by NationalWorld shows.

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Sexual health charity Brook said the cost to individuals and to society because of untreated STIs, late identification of HIV status and unintended pregnancies is ‘extremely high’ and that significant government investment was required to stop more services from closing.

Sexual health services have had their budgets slashedSexual health services have had their budgets slashed
Sexual health services have had their budgets slashed

Rates of STIs increased slightly last year across England, according to the latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) with syphilis, gonorrhoea, genital herpes and warts all on the rise.

The government said it was giving English councils £3.4 billion for public health work this year and that it was up to individual authorities how much they allocated to sexual health services.

Brook’s head of policy and public affairs, Lisa Hallgarten, said the charity had ‘consistently voiced concern about the level of cuts to sexual health services since 2015. Investing in sexual and reproductive health is good prevention, vital health promotion and is good value for money. It’s baffling why successive governments have failed to invest in this vital aspect of healthcare.’