Gill Bell
Nurse Consultant Sexual Health Adviser
Genitourinary Medicine
Royal Hallamshire Hospital
Sheffield
S10 2JF
Dear Gill,
The National Professional Committee (NPC) for the Society of Sexual Health Advisers would like acknowledge that we welcome the forthcoming Partner Notification performance measure for the BASHH STI Management Standards.
However the NPC would recommend that the audit standard sits in line with the recommendations within The Manual for Sexual Health Advisers published in April 2004 and Scotland’s Standards for Sexual Health Services published in March 2008. Both of which recommend a 90 day time span in relation to contacts having attended a service from the index cases first partner notification interview.
NPC recognise that the majority of contacts will have attended much sooner than the 90 days as the emphasis of partner notification should be carried out promptly and the aim is to encourage contacts attendance as soon as possible but agree that staffing levels and locality of service in relation to access can affect this.
We would be grateful if the standard could be re-worded to ensure equity across the UK.
The PN outcome standards we recommend are:
- The number of sexual contacts satisfactorily managed (clinician confirmed) within 90 days of the first partner notification interview.
- The number of sexual contacts satisfactorily managed 9clinician or patient confirmed) within 90 days of the first partner notification interview.
Best wishes,
Jamie Hardie
SSHA President
On behalf of SSH NPC