President’s Blog – Professor Matt Phillips – November 2024
07 November 2024
(Last updated: 8 Nov 2024 10:06)
Dear Colleagues,
I hope you are all keeping well.
October saw the Government’s policy agenda gather pace, with both the Autumn Budget and launch of a ‘national conversation’ on health care reform. In the Budget, the Chancellor set out her vision for investing in public services, which included a welcome £22.6bn for the NHS, alongside further capital investment and a 3.2% increase in real-terms funding for local government core spending. Our full response to the statement is available here.
The Government also opened a new consultation platform, set up for members of the public to share their ideas about how to improve healthcare ahead of a new 10-year plan for the NHS. The Government is particularly interested in hearing from people working in the NHS, so I would encourage you to take a look online and share your views: https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB. For some of you, your services are entirely outside of the NHS due to commissioning – I would still encourage you to have your say – NHS is sometimes used a shorthand for healthcare in general and that can sometimes mean GUM falls between two stools.
BASHH will be engaging with the Government on the consultation and has reached out to offer our support in setting up more in-depth conversation opportunities with experts working in GUM, along with our wider network of community organisations and service users. We will continue to make the case for a national sexual health strategy and the additional investment that will enable our amazing workforce to deliver the best possible sexual health care up and down the country, and to tackle rising inequalities in outcomes.
I was delighted, as I’m sure many of you were, to see the law changed to allow people living with untransmissible HIV to donate gametes – a step that is long overdue and that sees the scientific evidence prevail. This marks an important milestone in delivering equality for people living with HIV and supporting the right to engage fully in reproductive healthcare. I would like to express my personal thanks to Dr Tristan Barber, who was the BASHH representative leading the advocacy to deliver this change, working alongside Dr Nicky Mackie to advise the government’s Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) Advisory Committee. I would also like to recognise the huge amount of work that NAT did to take this issue forward, supporting the development of new regulations, and the work of BHIVA alongside them. It is a testament to the change we can make when we come together.
On a more sombre note, the start of October also saw the publication of annual HIV data from UKHSA, which revealed a 51% increase in new HIV diagnoses in England. This stark increase underlines that there is no room for complacency when it comes to delivering on the ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. Properly resourced sexual health services are key to realising this ambition. I am particularly exercised by the widening inequities this is revealing and continue to push in all the fora I can that inequities cannot be addressed through passive strategies.
UKHSA’s new STI Prioritisation Framework is a great new tool that I strongly welcome to support efforts to address rising STIs against a challenging financial backdrop. Rooted in a public health approach, the framework’s 12 guiding principles aim to shift the focus of STI control efforts, effectively prioritising activity to reduce adverse health outcomes and inequalities, considering the local:
- Situation,
- Target Groups, and
- Interventions.
I am pleased that BASHH was able to support the development of this important tool and hope that it helps to lay the groundwork for further strategic thinking on sexual health.
Finally, as I mentioned in my last blog, we are fast approaching the BASHH AGM, and the changes this brings for reps on the CGC and nominations for Fellows to the Board. I again encourage you to think about these roles and would encourage you to reach out if you would find a conversation with current officers or representatives helpful.
Thank you for all the ongoing support you provide in these efforts and as ever, please let me know if I can help you at president@bashh.net. It’s a privilege representing the work of our specialty and indeed ‘us’, and the work we do makes a real difference everyday
Yours,
Matt
Professor Matt Phillips
BASHH President