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New sexual health service for North Yorkshire
York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has won the contract to provide a new sexual health treatment, advice and support service for young people and adults across North Yorkshire.
North Yorkshire County Council awarded the £3million contract for the provision of its new Integrated Sexual Health Service to the Trust following a competitive tender process.
The Trust will work with highly experienced voluntary sector sexual health organisations and GP practices to provide locally based services which will be accessed through a central booking system.
The new service will be available free to all who require it, and will include the provision of contraception; STI testing and treatment services; community outreach services; and support services for people with HIV and their carers.
Tina Ramsey, Clinical Services Manager, for Yorsexualhealth at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted to have won the contract to provide sexual health services in North Yorkshire.
“We welcome the opportunity to work closely with our experienced voluntary sector partners and local GPs to provide a range of high quality, easily accessible sexual health services across all district council areas in North Yorkshire.
“We will offer one-stop shops where the majority of sexual health needs, contraception and STI management, can be met in one place by one practitioner. In addition, telephone consultations and postal treatments will be available for those who may find it difficult to access our clinics.”
County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Public Health and Prevention, said: “Commissioning public health services became our responsibility in 2013 and this gave us a great opportunity to reshape and improve the sexual health services available to people in North Yorkshire.
“Last year we undertook a consultation exercise about the sexual health requirements of our residents, which provided the information we needed to retender our existing contracts to meet local demands. The new integrated service will be simpler for people to use and we believe that it will provide them with the very best help and advice available”.
Dr Lincoln Sargeant, Director of Public Health for North Yorkshire said: “Taking care of your sexual health means more than being free from sexually transmitted infections (STIs), or not having to face an unplanned pregnancy as a result of ineffective contraception, or no contraception at all. It means taking care of your own health, your partner's health and decisions about relationships. Providing an effective sexual health service is an important part of our wider work to support the physical, mental and social wellbeing of all our communities.”
The new service will be operational by 1 July 2015, following the award of the £3 million contract in January 2015. It replaces a complex range of services previously provided through nine different contracts.
30 January 2015
