President’s Blog – Professor Matt Phillips – August 2024

02 August 2024 (Last updated: 31 Jul 2024 11:12)

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are all keeping well. There might have been lots in the national news, but let’s start with how amazing the BASHH Annual Conference was. With around 500 delegates each day, it really was a get together to celebrate what we are doing and what we can do.  This year we also attended to sustainability – the carbon was offset for the conference, and I was pleased to host a President’s plant-based breakfast to launch the joint BASHH / BHIVA sustainability special interest group. Please contact Rachel Drayton or Mindy Clarke if you’d like in on this brilliant movement. 

With a new Labour Government now in post, we have reached out to newly appointed Ministers to congratulate them and share BASHH’s Four Priorities for the New Government, which set out an ambitious vision to safeguard sexual health and wellbeing in the UK. These have been developed drawing on discussion at Conference, feedback in recent months and by drawing on direct insights from the member survey on policy priorities – thank you again to all who have inputted in some way. Specifically, we’re calling on the Government to commit to the development of a new sexual health strategy for England, informed by experts and service users and which supports a cohesive approach to sexual health policy across the four nations; fully resource sexual health services so they can meet growing and changing needs and end health inequalities; ensure timely access to expertise for everyone with a need for sexual health provision; and work together to build a workforce in GUM that can meet population needs long into the future. Taken together, we think that prioritising these will begin to address the challenges we see every day, and make a real difference in improving outcomes and helping to ensure our system is on a more sustainable footing.

I would also like to thank members who have reached out to express their interest in inviting their newly elected local MP to their sexual health service. These can be really good opportunities for Parliamentarians to get exposure to the breadth of quality sexual health care that we deliver day in, day out for their constituents – helping to put sexual health on the radar of potential advocates in Westminster. It’s been great to see interest from members around the country and we look forward to sharing further guidance on how this can be progressed- please contact us if you haven’t done so now, it needs a real push.  

In other news, last month the Department for Education opened a consultation to review the proposed changes to statutory guidance on teaching RSHE. We know that RSHE is a vital foundation for lifelong sexual health and wellbeing and has the power to support better individual and public health outcomes. BASHH submitted a consultation response, with key input from members of our Adolescent Special Interest Group (ASIG) and Gender and Sexual Minorities Special Interest Group (GSM SIG), to emphasise the importance of considering RSHE within a broader agenda to promote sexual health. In our response we raised a number of concerns, including how the guidance refers to education around sexual orientation, gender diversity, and sexual enjoyment and pleasure – despite evidence showing a good understanding of these being key to fostering positive and healthy attitudes towards sexuality, gender and sexual experiences. The consultation responses are now with the Department for consideration, and we’ll keep you updated on developments.

You may have also seen that we recently launched a new recruitment campaign focussed on raising awareness of GUM and how brilliant it is. Recognising that our specialty is facing recruitment challenges, LoveGUM shares crucial information about our specialty, including fact or fiction style videos, the training pathway, consultant and trainee testimonials and much more. The campaign has been a great success since launch – we’ve made it into national news (The Independent, the Evening Standard, LBC Radio) and it’s also been positive to see the sector-wide endorsements we’ve received from the likes of Brook, FSRH, GLADD, Fast Track Cities, the BIA and more. I really encourage you all to check out the website we’ve built for the campaign, particularly the ‘support the campaign’ page which includes social media assets, email signatures, presentation slides and more. I believe that we all are our greatest advocates for our specialty – so please help spread the word far and wide. Together, we can inspire more medical students and pre-specialty junior doctors who will be making important career decisions in the coming months and years to consider GUM.  I urge you to think how you can contribute to supporting the talent pipeline- please be in touch with your local STASHH rep to see how to nurture interest locally and support our beautiful specialty into the future. 

Looking ahead and overseas, IUSTI Europe is fast approaching in September. I’m delighted that the brilliant Dr Claire Dewsnap will be chairing a symposium on HIV and Blood Bourne Virus (BBV) Prevention on day two. There is a special BASHH member rate and we hope to see some of you there.

Lastly, I’d like to spotlight Zero HIV Stigma Day which took place last week, coordinated by IAPAC, Naz, Global HIV Collaborative, and GNP+. We were proud to support the theme alongside colleagues – “Beyond Labels: Redefining HIV Narratives” – signifying a call to move beyond labels and stereotypes associated with people living with and affected by HIV, and to celebrate the decades of advocacy that have moved the needle on those narratives. HIV stigma prevails in the UK, with almost half (45%) feeling ashamed of their status and 1 in 3 people (32%) reported low self-esteem due to their HIV status (Positive Voices 2022 survey report). There is undoubtedly more to be done to tackle HIV stigma, and it’s encouraging to see this campaign draw attention to how stigma can cost lives and what we can all do to help end it.

Yours as ever, please let me know if I can help you president@bashh.net

Matt

Professor Matt Phillips

BASHH President