Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to encourage the uptake of chlamydia screening.

Jane Ellison

The Public Health Outcomes Framework includes a chlamydia diagnosis rate indicator – one of three sexual health indicators in the framework. Public Health England (PHE) encourages local authorities to work towards achieving a rate of 2,300 diagnoses per 100,000 young adult populations.

The National Chlamydia Screening Programme (NCSP) supports this aim through:

– Publishing chlamydia screening standards, to form the basis of local screening planning, delivery and quality assurance;

– Producing guidance to support local commissioners and providers in the delivery of chlamydia screening, including forthcoming publication ‘Achieving the diagnostic rate indicator’;

– Reviewing and summarising the latest evidence to inform evidence-based and cost-effective approaches to chlamydia screening;

– Collecting and publishing chlamydia data, at a national and local level, to monitor screening and detection activity;

– Providing information to young adults on chlamydia, chlamydia screening and wider sexual health matters (e.g. condom use, contraception), including via a website;

– Supporting the implementation of specific programmes to increase chlamydia screening rates, such as the ‘3Cs & HIV Programme’. This is currently being piloted across England to encourage the routine offer of chlamydia screening, alongside information on contraception and condoms, to young adults during primary care appointments;

– A team of PHE sexual health facilitators, who are linked closely into local commissioner and provider sexual health networks, with a focus on promoting chlamydia screening; and

– Evaluating the impact of the NCSP, including development of different approaches to estimate and monitor prevalence, such as mathematical modelling.