Some STI tests now free, along with smears

Thursday 03 January 2019

A number of potentially life saving services are now available for free, thanks to new funding arrangements agreed by the States of Guernsey.

The Committee for Health and Social Care is now funding free cervical screening in Guernsey and Alderney for women aged between 25 and 65.

Previously, most women had to pay for the screening, which can save their lives by picking up any abnormalities early on.

The screening procedure itself will stay the same in that eligible women will be automatically invited for their tests and will have to contact their GP practices, Choices or the Orchard Clinic to book their own appointments, but now they won't be charged.

Pictured: Smear tests are now being offered for free to women aged 25-65. 

It's hoped this will encourage more women to attend for cervical screening, by taking away the barrier of payment - which for some women was up to £80.

Emily Davies, Public Health Practitioner, said:

“We know that there are many reasons why women do not attend screening. We also know that locally cost is a major factor that prevents women from attending screening. The shift towards free cervical screening is a very positive step forward and we hope that more women will be encouraged to attend cervical screening now that cost is no longer a barrier.

"For those women who have not had regular screening in the past, please contact your GP to book an appointment.”

Dr Nicola Brink, Director of Public Health, said:

“Each year in Guernsey and Alderney, approximately five new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed with approximately one to two deaths from cervical cancer recorded per year. The cervical screening programme, together with our HPV vaccination programme, will help us move towards our goal of eliminating cervical cancer in the Bailiwick.”

Heidi Soulsby, President of the Committee for Health & Social Care, added:

“This is an excellent initiative that will hopefully increase screening attendance and lead to better health outcomes for women. We are committed to improving outcomes through prevention and early intervention, as outlined in the Partnership of Purpose policy letter. This change also means that cervical screening will now be free like the two other cancer screening programmes for bowel and breast cancer.”

Pictured: Deputy Heidi Soulsby. 

As well as smear tests now being offered for free, some STI tests will now be carried out for no charge, for some people.

Both the Orchard Centre and Choices, the island's two contraception and sexual health providers, are offering self testing kits for chlamydia and gonorrhoea for people aged 16-25. The idea is that you do the test at home, return it to the service who provided the kit and then arrange any follow up appointments. 

Those two tests have been chosen based on research carried out by Public Health England, which reports on the numbers of sexually transmitted infections in England including trends in certain groups every year.  

This year’s report showed that the impact of sexually transmitted infections remains greatest in young people aged 15-24 with local statistics also reflecting this pattern.

Laura Brouard, Orchard Centre Manager, said:

“We are aware of the barriers that young people face when attending the clinic for screening so we wanted to adapt our processes to make it easier and more client-friendly for young people to access our services.  This will hopefully encourage more young people to get tested and therefore take charge of their sexual health.  Still the most effective way to prevent sexually transmitted infections is to use condoms.”

Fiona Hardy, Service manager for Choices, added:

“Choices is keen to support an initiative which helps to remove some of the barriers - fear and embarrassment - to accessing essential sexual health screening. We must be mindful that Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea infection may not produce any symptoms so testing is vital to detect the infection, reduce complications and prevent onward transmission.”

Self- testing packs are now available from both clinics. For further information contact either The Orchard Centre on 707707 or Choices on 714954.

Pictured top: Tests for chlamydia and gonorrhoea are now available for free for those under 25, along with smear tests for women between 25 and 65 years old.