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

The March 2019 issue covers the Sexual Health inquiry by the Health & Social Care Committee, which heard evidence from the President of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) Dr Asha Kasliwal on cuts to services, fragmented commissioning and workforce challenges. This edition also highlights an inquiry into contraception access in England by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health (APPG SRH). In this month’s eFeature, Dr Helen Munro, Vice President of FSRH, and Dr Raj Patel, Chair of the Clinical Standards Unit of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), give an overview of the development of the first service standards for online and remote providers of sexual health and SRH services.

Sexual health, reproductive health and HIV have been at the forefront of parliamentary activity over the past month: the Health & Social Care Select Committee has heard oral evidence from the Public Health Minister and key national organisations representing commissioners and providers as part of its inquiry into sexual health; the APPG SRH has opened an inquiry into access to contraception in England; over 100 MPs successfully challenged the BBC on the provision of abortion information on its Action Line website and a group of Parliamentarians have called on the Health Secretary to intervene to ensure London is able to take its full complement of additional places on the PrEP Impact Trial.

Other items to look out for in the March 2019 issue include: the publication of the revised Government guidance on Relationships Education, RSE and Health Education; the new NICE Quality Standard on Sexual Health; the announcement of a new joint task force of Government, business and charities to tackle period poverty in the UK and the launch of a major new campaign on cervical screening by Public Health England (PHE) to encourage all eligible women to respond to screening invitations.

In this month’s eFeature, Dr Helen Munro, Vice President of FSRH & Chair of the FSRH’s Clinical Standards Committee (CSC) and Dr Raj Patel, Chair of BASHH’s Clinical Standards Unit, provide background on the recently-launched standards for online and remote providers of sexual health and SRH services, including key issues that came up during development.

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

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