Introduction An audit in 2013 suggested that only 69% of attendances and 64% of Sexual Health and HIV Activity Property Type (SHHAPT) codes were correctly assigned. SHHAPT coding supports the monitoring and reporting of STIs, facilitating robust assessment of service needs, enabling informed planning and better allocation of limited resources at all levels to reduce the level of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). To achieve this coding requires accuracy and consistency and so the audit was repeated in 2016 to assess whether SHHAPT coding in this region had improved.

Methods Six new clinical scenarios were circulated to clinics in one UK region requesting that up to five individuals that regularly participate in completing the SHHAPT code assign an appointment type and the relevant SHHAPT code to each of them. The same scenarios were sent to Public Health England (PHE) and completed to provide the standard.

Results The percentage of correctly assigned attendances is 86% and SHHAPT codes are 75%, respectively.

Discussion Comparing the results from 2016 to 2013, recording of attendance type has improved to 86%, up by 17% and coding of the clinical scenarios to 78%, up by 14%.

Since 2013 new guidance and codes have been issued by PHE. To continue this improvement we suggest that at each regional meeting any new changes in the SHHAPT coding is highlighted and ask those clinicians attending to circulate to those within their department in a way that they belive to be most effective.