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National Audit Group

National Audit Group


Membership

  • Dr Natasha Astill, Chair
  • Dr Vanessa Apea,  Vice-Chair
  • Ms Lucie Ralph, Audit Co-Ordinator 

New opportunity for trainee to lead the 2026 BASHH national audit on the management of anogenital herpes- submit interest by 25th of February 2026

BASHH's National Audit Group regularly appoints a specialist trainee, trainee researcher, or other early career healthcare professional working in Sexual Health Services, to help lead each of its major national audit projects. Individuals are invited to put themselves forward for this role for the 2026 audit. The audit will concentrate on the management of anogenital herpes including specific considerations in pregnancy. Key areas of focus will include relevant policies, processes, and clinical practices for the management of anogenital herpes, in line with the BASHH 2024 Herpes simplex guidelines and the updated 2024 joint HSV in Pregnancy guidelines from BASHH and the Royal College of Obstetricians.

The trainee lead for a national audit project is co-opted as a member of the National Audit Group and their role is to:

  • Work with members of the group, and BASHH’s clinical audit coordinator (Lucie Stuart) in planning the audit and analysing the data
  • Present the audit findings orally at BASHH conference.
  • Prepare and submit an article based on the audit findings for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, for which they would normally be first author. This should be submitted within 6 months of the conference presentation.

Ideally, applicants should have had at least 2 years’ experience working in Sexual Health and need to be nominated by the BASHH Regional Audit Chair for their area. The trainee should also have the support and agreement of their own consultant, principal investigator or line management, if different. Successful applicants should be BASHH members for the period of time they are on the committee.

Interested trainees should contact the BASHH Regional Audit Chair for their area (see list below) to request nomination, detailing experience and how they could contribute toward this topic. If this is agreed, they should submit the trainee’s name and contact details to Lucie Stuart (nag@BASHH.org) by 25th February 2026. The successful candidate will be selected from those nominated and notified during the following week.

List of BASHH Regional Audit Chairs in dropdown menu below.

 

 

  • BASHH Regional Audit Chairs

    Anglia: Helen  Pollitt

    Cheshire & Mersey: Kirsten Michie

    Essex: Malaki Ramogi

    North Thames: Vanessa Apea

    Northern: Rachael Viney

    Northern Ireland: Emma Mccarty

    North-West: Dornubari Lebari

    Oxford: Nisha Pal

    Scotland: Sally Wielding

    South-East Thames: Soe Aung

    South-West: Sophia Davies

    South-West Thames: Ceri Slater

    Trent: Rasha Omer

    Wales: Sian Warren

    Wessex: Alison Blume

    West Midlands: Lisa Goodall

    Yorkshire: Natasha Astill

     

    Reflection from a pre-specialty representative on her reasons for getting involved and her experience in the group

    'Being the inaugural pre-specialty representative for the BASHH National Audit Group has been an incredibly rewarding experience. This unique role reflects the growing recognition of the importance of early-career clinicians in shaping the future of sexual health services.  The role also embodies the value of inclusion and diversity in clinical governance, ensuring that perspectives from all stages of a clinician's professional journey are considered. It has provided an essential platform for me to contribute to national initiatives, and engage in my own clinical development. Participating in the national audit has deepened my understanding of the crucial role audits play in shaping healthcare practices. It has been great for my career progression, continuing education, and leadership development. There is space to progress this role further to act as a conduit between a greater number of pre-speciality doctors and more experienced members of the audit group, fostering an environment of mentorship, knowledge exchange, and collaboration.

     

     

  • Objectives

  • National audits of clinical practice in sexual health/genitourinary medicine clinics against the BASHH Clinical Effectiveness Group (CEG) National Guidelines
  • A forum to discuss national and regional audit programmes
  • Response to requests for national audits by the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV
  • Specification of key auditable outcomes for the common genitourinary conditions, using the clinical guidelines of the CEG as the standard of care

 

Significant activities

  • National audit of management of Mycoplasma genitalium infection completed
  • BASHH Board approval for the renewal of the clinical audit coordinator role following the planned retirement of the current coordinator at the end of 2022
  • Recruitment of new audit coordinator
  • Liaison with Clinical Effectiveness Group and reviewing and advising on auditable outcomes for the management of ano-genital warts
  • Ongoing liaison with the UK Health Security Agency and National Chlamydia Screening Programme
  • Ongoing liaison with the LUSTRUM project regarding piloting of proposed new partner notification audit measures

BHIVA-BASHH National Clinical Audit 2025: Partner Notification - Data collection is now complete, and the analysis is underway.

Performance/Outputs in the year 2023-2024

  • Presentation of management of Mycoplasma genitalium audit findings and overview of quality improvement processes at 2023 BASHH conference
  • Dissemination of individualised reports from the management of Mycoplasma genitalium audit to participating services

Future plans

  • National audit of HIV testing in sexual health services (clinic attenders not tested for HIV)
  • originally planned for 2023 but postponed to February 2024 due to delayed recruitment of audit co-ordinator
  • Ongoing work to map of key topics for audit based on the HIV Action Plan, BASHH standards, Sexual Health Strategy and PrEP Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, as well as BASHH guidelines

Members

Natasha Astill

Chair

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