New patient information leaflets to accompany BASHH guidelines
- Gill McCarthy,
- on behalf of the BASHH Clinical Effectiveness Group
- Correspondence to Dr Gill McCarthy, Wolverton Centre for Sexual Health, Kingston Hospital NHS Trust, Galsworthy Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 5TG, UK; gill.mccarthy{at}kingstonhospital.nhs.uk
- Adult
- sexually transmitted diseases
- consumer health information
- pamphlets
- health communication
- patients-views
- sexual health
- communication skills
- guideline development
- health promotion
Sexual health physicians have always attributed considerable importance to the provision of accurate and relevant information for patients. This helps to debunk the many myths that surround sexually transmitted infections, alleviate anxiety, ensure compliance with treatment and encourage partner notification.
‘Patient experience’ is now an important marker of healthcare quality and patients rate factual, easily understood information about their condition highly in this regard.1 ,2
Until recently sexual health practitioners have had to rely on information booklets produced by external agencies or their own ‘home produced’ leaflets which may be of variable quality. It is timely …
