all but phased out, and in most sexual health clinics, the average wait has risen to two weeks.”
If you, yourself, had the STI and needed screening and treatment, this would be clearly unacceptable. This delay also has serious implications for public health in terms of transmission.
The strategy lays out the idea of a three-level comprehensive sexual health service to partially combat this issue. However, this will mean developing the role of GPs, nurses, wider primary care teams and NHS walk-in centres with the need to provide a considerable amount of staff training and resources within GP surgeries.
We wait for further guidance on how these improvements are to be funded and managed in another Department of Health initiative, called the Commissioning Toolkit (not yet published at the time of writing).

You can influence your services
One of the key points of the Labour government’s new approach to the NHS is that they want to see a new balance of power in which people, communities and government work together in partnership to improve the healthcare system.
Local Primary Care Trusts have to actively involve service users and the local public in the planning and development of services. This is also reflected in the National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV.
The DoH stated, as part of the timetable and action plan that, by the end of 2002, it would have set up a mechanism to enable service users, including people with HIV, to influence policy at a national level. It also stated that it would develop a good practice resource, for PCTs and local authorities, on involving sexual health and HIV service users at a local level by March 2003. Some PCTs are already doing this as part of the Patient and Public Involvement Initiative.
If you want to have your say, a good way of finding out how would be to ask your local voluntary HIV

organisation.They may well have an idea of about what initiatives are currently in place or being developed.