BASHH

On the 1^st January 2012, the Royal College of Physicians published the report of the: Alcohol & Sexual Health Working Party, chaired by Dr. Simon Barton.  The report entitled: Alcohol and sex: a cocktail for poor sexual health reviews the evidence for the link between alcohol and poor sexual health outcomes, and most importantly defines the value of interventions in sexual health settings that can reduce the associated morbidity. 

The Working Party heard evidence from a number of providers regarding the priority for widening the brief of sexual health services to broader aspects of risk taking, particularly in young people, and particularly associated with binge drinking. 

The document has been endorsed by the Secretary of State, Andrew Lansley, who emphasised the role of the NHS to prevent ill health, and endorse sexual health clinics for their role in alcohol risk reduction.  It is essential that this report and the endorsement of the Secretary of State are now turned into local actions that will require commissioners and providers of sexual health services to define innovative ways of delivering alcohol risk reduction, and improving the collaboration between drug and alcohol services with sexual health services.  There are opportunities for joint training and improving the patient pathway through local work.  It is hoped that BASHH will play a major role in facilitating these discussions, and through evaluation of the use of brief intervention and audit, achieve and share best practice in this regard.

BASHH hopes to co-ordinate a series of meetings both nationally and locally through regions, and the RCP Working Party on Alcohol & Sexual Health would be grateful to receive feed-back, formally, so that it can define future work that may be necessary to achieve a reduction in sexual ill health associated particularly with alcohol intake in young people.