A record number of visits were made to sexual health clinics in England last year, amid warnings about drastic cuts to services and resources being stretched to their limit.
Figures show there were 3,323,275 attendances at sexual health clinics in England in 2017, up 13% on the 2,940,779 visits in 2013, and the equivalent of an extra 210 a day, or 1,471 a week.
However, it comes at a time of £600m in public health cuts, and the Local Government Association (LGA) – which represents 370 councils in England and Wales – said budget reductions needed to be halted immediately to cope with rising demand.
The risks of this not happening, council leaders warned, was that it could affect councils’ ability to respond to unforeseen sexually transmitted infection outbreaks.
Councillor Ian Hudspeth, chairman of the LGA’s community wellbeing board, said: “While it’s great to see a huge increase in people taking their sexual health seriously ...[it] is pushing some councils’ sexual health services to peak capacity levels.”
He added that resources are already being “stretched to the limit”, and clinics are reporting an increase in the number of lengthy delays and people having to be turned away.
“Cuts to public health funding need to be reversed as this could affect councils’ ability to meet further increases in demand” he said.
The government’s public health grant for 2018-19 is £3.21bn, down from £3.30bn the year before, according to the figures in a parliamentary written statement. The decrease is part of planned cuts to public health funding of at least £600m by 2020-21.
Dr Olwen Williams, president of the British association for sexual health and HIV (BASHH), said cuts to sexual health funding had come at “the worst possible time”.
She added: “Record demand for services, dramatic increases in syphilis and gonorrhoea diagnoses, and the spread of treatment-resistant infection in recent years mean that many services are struggling to cope, despite valiant efforts from staff.”
Williams said many areas are now at “breaking point” and further cuts would almost certainly tip them over the edge. “We ... urgently call upon the government to reverse its damaging approach to sexual health and provide services with the support they desperately need,” she said.
Ed Morrow, external affairs manager at the Royal society for public health, said: “Supply must be able to meet demand. As with other local public health services, there is an urgent need for budget cuts to be reversed, or the public’s health will suffer as a result.”
The total number of sexual health screens – tests for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis and HIV – has risen by nearly a fifth (18%) during this period, from 1,513,288 in 2013 to 1,778,306 in 2017.
The LGA said it is urging the government to reverse the £600 million in public health cuts to help councils meet rising demand for sexual health services and prevent people from experiencing potentially longer waiting times and a reduced quality of service.