July 2019 issue of the Sexual Health, Reproductive Health & HIV Policy e-Bulletin is out today

The July 2019 issue covers the votes by MPs to bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK by extending abortion access to women and legalising same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. This edition also highlights the Sexual Health inquiry report by the Health and Social Care Committee. In this month’s eFeature, Dr Paula Baraitser shares learnings on digital innovation in SRH.

At Government level, the DHSC has now completed its review of sexual health commissioning and Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock has announced that public health services, including sexual and reproductive healthcare services, will remain the responsibility of local authorities.

Other items to look out for this month include confirmation from Public Health England (PHE) that a universal programme for adolescent HPV immunisation will start from September this year; final statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) on implementing Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in schools; new annual data from PHE showing a 5% rise in the diagnoses of STIs in England in 2018; and annual statistics on abortion by the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) showing a 4 % increase in the number of abortions in 2018.

The eFeature this month is by Dr Paula Baraitser, a consultant in sexual health at King’s College Hospital and a director of the community interest online sexual health service SH:24.

Read the July 2019 issue here. If you would like to receive the next issues directly in your e-mail inbox, please subscribe.

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