Background/introduction Timely treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STI) is an important factor in reducing sequelae and transmission. British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) standards for the management of STIs recommends treatment “in as short a timescale as possible”. The National Chlamydia Screening Programme (NCSP) sets a key indicator of treating ≥95% of those testing positive within six weeks of test date.

Aim(s)/objectives To explore the feasibility of services achieving a shorter time to treatment standard.

Methods National audit data from the most recent NCSP turnaround time audit were used to explore how many services would meet treatment targets of three and two weeks from test date.

Results The current time to treatment standard of ≥95% treated within six weeks was achieved by 39% of providers (91% of positive patients receiving treatment within six weeks, due to large services having a proportionately greater impact). Using the targets of three and two weeks this fell to 28% and 4% of providers, respectively. However, this represents 88% of patients treated within three weeks and 76% within two weeks (Table 1).

Discussion/conclusion 88% of positive patients were treated within three weeks from test date even though only 28% of providers would have been able to meet this time to treatment standard. Meeting a shorter time to treatment standard would be challenging but could help to drive quality improvement and may form part of updated standards for the NCSP.