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EDUCATION NEWS: Sexual health - Call for school-based health services

1 min read
Health experts have called for adolescent sexual health services to be based in schools, with one describing the demise of school-based health services as "disastrous".

Dr Russell Viner, consultant in adolescent medicine at University College Hospitals and Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: "Adolescents do not use adult sexual health services, even if they are available."

He wants to see adolescent general health clinics, particularly in schools, offering services including treatment for sexually transmitted infections and family planning.

"One of the most disastrous things we have done is destroy school-based health services," he added.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, said: "We need sensitive, approachable school-based services and referrals by school nurses."

One in 10 teenage girls may be affected by chlamydia, which Dr Nathanson called a "fertility timebomb". She said: "It's giving young people the confidence to know they can access services on their own." Schools could provide that environment because young people felt comfortable there, she claimed.

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