20 June 2017
New sexual health service launches in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire
Unity Sexual Health is a new sexual health service for people
living in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
The service will offer a number of new initiatives including
more evening and Saturday appointment slots in sexual health
clinics, a new sexual health service in South Gloucestershire
starting in early July and the ability to request self-testing kits
for sexually transmitted infections (STI) online through the Unity
website: www.unitysexualhealth.co.uk.
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust has partnered
with seven organisations - British Pregnancy Advisory Service,
Brook, Marie Stopes UK, Terrence Higgins Trust and The Eddystone
Trust, North Bristol NHS Trust and Weston Area Health NHS Trust -
to deliver this new service.
People across all three regions will benefit from the local
expertise of each partner organisation but the unified approach
will offer benefits such as a single telephone number (0117 342
6900) across the region for people to contact the service.
Dr Helen Wheeler, clinical lead and sexual health consultant at
Unity Sexual Health, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation
Trust said: "We are thrilled to be able to offer a range of new
sexual health initiatives to the people of Bristol, North Somerset
and South Gloucestershire such as on-line self-testing. The kits
will allow people to STI test at home and so offers them more
privacy and control over their sexual health and wellbeing."
The self-testing kits are returned to Unity and the results will
be provided confidentially.
Bristol City Council is the co-ordinating
commissioner1. Speaking on behalf of the commissioning
authorities, Becky Pollard, Director of Public Health at Bristol
City Council, said: "We are very pleased to be working with
University Hospitals Bristol to bring more cohesion to the sexual
health services in the region. Unity Sexual Health service is free,
confidential and open to people of all ages. It has been designed
based on the needs of local people and input from the
public.
This is an excellent example of partnership working across the
region and for the first time ever it has been commissioned jointly
with NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups and across a broader area.
This has helped to make the most of the resources available, avoid
duplication, and importantly improve sexual health."
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