Following the success of winning the contract to continue to be the provider of integrated Sexual Health and HIV treatment and care services in East Sussex, our Sexual Health services held open events to launch the new service and give people the chance to discuss with staff the range of services available and look around the two main bases at Avenue House in Eastbourne and Station Plaza in Hastings.
Sexual health team at Eastbourne
Gill Hamer, Sexual Health Service Manager said: “We are delighted to launch our new service and promote the work we do. Winning the Sexual Health contract is a tremendous endorsement of our integrated Sexual Health and HIV team who provide a superb service to the local community. We know our efforts are greatly appreciated by service users with satisfaction levels from our Friends and Family test being consistently above 95%.”
Sexual health team at Hastings
The new sexual health service offers improved access to service users and new developments. The range of services offered includes free Chlamydia and HIV testing, care and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and HIV, free contraception, free web based chlamydia and gonorrhoea screening (www.freetest.me) and the supply of chlamydia screening home kits via text (text 80010). New developments include Saturday afternoon opening, a patient Freephone number 0808 1681282, increased availability of pre-bookable appointments to include on-line booking and touch screen self-assessment, increased web based home testing for sexually transmitted infections and HIV and self-care tests available at reception for those who do not have symptoms
Around 3,000 people use the sexual health service each month across East Sussex. Specialist sexual health services in East Sussex are provided from two main bases at Station Plaza in Hastings and Avenue House in Eastbourne, with sessional outreach specialist services provided on a variety of days and evenings in six community locations across the county. In addition a range of general sexual health and contraceptive services are provided by GPs and pharmacies with support from the specialist service.