• Testing

The recently published ‘Standards for the management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs)’ have the aim of achieving safe high-quality services for the management of STIs in the UK.1 But these standards may well have benefits beyond the UK because of the relative lack of other similar high-quality documents. They are particularly significant in that they come from a country with one of the largest networks of coordinated sexual-health services (termed genitourinary medicine clinics (GUM)) that has a strong established international reputation. They will complement some existing documents such as those available at the CDC site in the USA that are particularly valuable to those setting up or running sexual-health services.2

Setting standards to which health services can adhere and can be measured against, is an important element of high-quality and safe healthcare.3 Unfortunately, healthcare has lagged significantly behind other industries such as the much-quoted airline industry, where a focus on quality has led to a more than 90-fold reduction in fatal airline accidents over the last 50 years.4

This document provides nine standards for the management …