An NHS-run sexual health clinic serving parts of East and Central London is to close in the autumn despite the catchment area including hotspots for sexually-transmitted infections (STIs).
Homerton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust this week announced it would close the “valued” centre at 80 Leadenhall Street in the City of London, as the cost of the lease was rising and patient numbers had not returned to pre-pandemic levels. The decision comes weeks after North East London NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) reported a growing number of under-24s in the City and Hackney were seeking support around STIs.
Though the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), formerly Public Health England, recorded fewer diagnoses of STIs in London last year, NHS North East London found young people in the City and Hackney had sought more ‘interventions’ around sexual health – mostly around STIs – than in neighbouring boroughs Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham Forest.
According to UKHSA, Hackney, Lambeth and Southwark have the highest rate of total STIs in the capital, with each reporting at least 2,500 cases per 100,000 residents.
City of London follows close behind, with 2,422 cases per 100,000. In 2022, Londoners aged between 15 and 24 accounted for 29% of all new STI diagnoses in the capital.
However, analysis from Condoms UK in March deemed Hackney’s neighbouring borough of Islington, which also straddles the City of London, to be the likeliest place to catch an STI in England. Meanwhile, it found the City of Westminster had the highest rates of syphilis, gonorrhoea and genital warts in England.
Following the ICB’s June report, Hackney councillor Margaret Gordon (Labour) said the Town Hall’s committees had in the past been given a “patchy picture about the quality and seriousness” of sex and relationship education in Hackney’s schools.
In the City and Hackney, face-to-face consultations were yet to return to pre-pandemic levels “at least in part” because more people were using online services.
This goes against the nationwide trend, where despite the fall in all kinds of sexual health consultations – face-to-face, online or over the phone – clinic visits had seen a slight increase, according to the UKHSA.
The trust said the professionalism, warmth and responsiveness of staff at 80 Leadenhall would leave a “lasting impact” and assured that patients would still have access to treatment at other Homerton centres.
These include The Ivy at St Leonards Hospital, Clifden Centre and John Scott Health Centre.
From September, Homerton Hospital trust will also begin delivering similar services at the Neaman GP practice in the Barbican.
Following the UKHSA’s latest figures, in June the Local Government Association warned that sexual health services in England were grappling with “unprecedented pressure” and urged the government to carve out a 10-year strategy and invest more to deliver “expert, timely care”.
A spokesperson for Homerton UNISON said the union opposed any cuts to services and job losses: “We recognise that government lack of funding for the NHS is putting trusts under a huge amount of pressure, but the loss of this service for patients in this area is a real shame.”
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