Article Text
Abstract
Background The passing of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 committed to more services in the community provided closer to home and by GPs. Therefore most GP practices are commissioned to provide Level one STI screening.
Aim The aim of this Audit was to assess if STI screening in a single Level 1 GP surgery met BASHH Guidelines.
Methods A retrospective audit of 15000 patients was carried out over an audit period of 2 years. Notes of patients coded with a positive test result for Chlamydia or Gonorrhoea were reviewed and clinical practice compared to BASHH guidelines in 4 areas:
Method of investigation
Antibiotic treatment
Screening offered
Partner notification.
Discussion Results would suggest that clinical practice does not always meet BASHH guideline recommendations. Also of note is the low number of diagnoses, a total of 29 in the 2 year audit period. During this time there were 7636 patient encounters of people aged 17–24, all of which are potential screening/health promotion opportunities. Missed opportunities to promote sexual health or perform a full sexual health screen could lead to a higher prevalence of unrecognised sexual health conditions in an at risk group, where extreme rurality can make access to local sexual health clinics challenging.