Integrated Sexual Health Services
In 2015, we began our journey to integrate Sexual Health Services in the Barnsley District and in the Wakefield District.
This was an ambitious challenge which aimed to combine separate patient services into a “one-stop-shop”, bringing together experts in genitourinary medicine (GUM) with community Contraception services to offer better wraparound care.
Community benefits
We saw that integrated Sexual Health Services would bring lots of benefits for the local community, including faster access to STI screening, reduced waiting times, easier follow-up appointments and a central point of contact if they had queries.
What we did
We created purpose-built central clinics in each District, introduced new freephone numbers for patients and set about merging the existing GUM and Contraception services together.
Between March 2016-2017, Spectrum’s newly integrated Wakefield service and Barnsley service had engaged with almost…
18,643
patients
Between April and June 2017…
89 per cent
of respondents to a survey of over 300 service users in Wakefield rated their care as “brilliant”.
Developing nurses
The integrated service model also provided Spectrum with valuable opportunities to develop the skills of our nurses. We embarked on a training programme to equip all nurses with skills in contraception and STI support – comprising training delivered by the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), clinical supervision, shadowing and portfolio work.
In 2017, this work was shortlisted for a national Health Service Journal Award and by 2019, all nurses in our Wakefield and Barnsley Sexual Health Services were dual-trained.
A new brand
The integrated sexual health service was rebranded, supported by a dedicated sexual health website and social media presence. Through these channels, we are now able to engage more actively with patients and provide flexible support – for example, through introducing an online appointment booking and postal testing kits.
Spectrum is part of the regional Sexual Health Provider Network in Yorkshire, sharing expertise and working closely with partners from both statutory and voluntary sector organisations. In 2017, Spectrum successfully rolled out this ‘integrated’ model to Wigan and Leigh Sexual Health Services.
During 2020/2021 school staff have delivered the spectrum content (with support and training) in 5 schools reaching over…
1,000
students