FSRH comments on new All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare Inquiry report

Breaking down the barriers: The need for accountability and integration in sexual health, reproductive health and HIV services in England sets out to understand what impact the Health and Social Act’s restructuring of SRH has had on commissioning and service delivery, as well as identify things that could be done differently to improve patient experience and outcomes.

Breaking down the barriers: The need for accountability and integration in sexual health, reproductive health and HIV services in England

The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) welcomes the publication of this timely report which focuses on progress made in SRH and HIV services since the introduction of the Health and Social Care Act in England. As the leading professional body representing doctors and nurses providing sexual and reproductive health care, the FSRH knows that the key elements ensuring effective SRH care are: care designed around the needs of the patient and the community; well trained and motivated healthcare professionals; funding mechanisms that incentivise prevention, innovation and good outcomes and effective clinical leadership which focuses on ensuring that systems and services work for patients.

There are many people working very hard at all levels of the NHS and Local Authorities to make the systems work for the very high percentage of the population who need good sexual and reproductive health to pursue their lives with optimal life chances. However, even more effort is required to ensure that the progress that has been made is sustained, for example the reduction in the rate of unwanted pregnancies.

Chris Wilkinson, FSRH President, said:
“One key point to highlight in the report, is the urgent need to acknowledge that splitting the commissioning of SRH care across local authorities and different NHS commissioning bodies has led to some consequences (including the threat of funding cuts that the NHS has been protected from as a whole) that do not bode well for comprehensive accessible SRH care. Like the All Party Group, the FSRH believes that only by treating SRH care as an ‘exemplar’ of what shared local authority/NHS services could look like - if the political will and accountability is there – will this ‘experiment’ become something that could truly benefit our society”.