Agenda item

The Lambeth, Southwark & Lewisham Sexual Health Strategy and Consultation will be presented by Rebecca Adeojo, lead senior sexual health commissioner (Lambeth Council)  and Kerry Crichlow, Director Strategy & Commissioning (Southwark Council). Papers are attached.

7.1  Rebecca Adeojo, lead senior sexual health commissioner (Lambeth Council) and Kerry Crichlow, Director Strategy & Commissioning (Southwark Council) presented the Lambeth, Southwark & Lewisham Sexual Health Strategy and Consultation. Ruth Wallis, Southwark Director of Public Health, also contributed to the discussion.

7.2  The committee conducted a question and answer session with the sexual health commissioners.

7.3  A member commented that Lambeth and Southwark have very high rates of HIV infection:11 out of 1000 Southwark people are infected with the HIV virus , whereas only 2 out of 1000 people are infected nationally, and asked commissioners why this is so.  Commissioners explained that the boroughs are the epicentres of the Men having Sex with Men (MSM) and the Black African communities, which are populations with higher rates. Commissioners would like to move services towards primary care by releasing funds, at the moment 23 million is spent on treatment and 1 million on prevention. There has been some innovative work to prevent infection, for example an online portal, called SH24, is in development ; this enables people to get virtual information as well as access face to face contact. The cross borough partnership developing SH24 have formed a social enterprise and are adopting an agile, iterative approach. SH24 pulls together several services together - for example it will let people know where go to for a morning after pill and Chlamydia services.

7.4  Concerns were raised by gay committee members that South London is on the edge of a second HIV epidemic. The move to Primary Care is supported however there is still prejudice towards gay men. There is a particular issue with “chemsex” for MSM, centred on Vauxhall, and a concern about generally high use of drugs. Shock was expressed that young men are not using contraception and also not testing and the consequent rise in infection rates. Members suggested that this is down to a combination of things – poor self esteem, chemsex and that HIV is no longer a death sentence.

7.5  Members asked what is being done to make every contact count to tackle HIV infection, domestic violence and also Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Commissions commented that there is a diversity of people affected by poor sexual health - as well as MSM the African and Latin American communities are very affected. The Director of Public Health said that the teenage pregnancy prevention work had a lot of success by going into schools and doing sexual education. She commented that there are some very complex issues around choice, power and control - for example multiple terminations and domestic violence. The senior sexual health commissioner said when FGM comes up health practitioners need to be sure that there are referral pathways, as these are not always in place.