LGBT+ pride month
Pride month is a time for our LGBTQI+ community to celebrate the progress made to attain the rights we currently enjoy and remember those who fought over the years to win these rights.
This month means many different things for the diverse members of our LGBTQI+ community and is a reminder that the struggle for equality is still ongoing and shouldn’t be forgotten.
“Pride is essentially a celebration of who we are, exactly how we are. Also a time for us to remember those who paved the way, and those who are still fighting.”
—Vic Diamante, Project Facilitator, Chelsea and Westminster
This year, London Pride has unveiled its new campaign, ‘#WeAreEverywhere’. This powerful message is about celebrating LGBTQ+ people living authentically and without apology in all spaces.
What we are doing
Chelsea Centre for Gender Surgery (CCGS)
In 2022, Our Trust was commissioned by NHS England to provide lower masculinising gender affirmation surgery.
The Chelsea Centre for Gender Surgery is passionate about helping patients alleviate their gender dysphoria. They work with service specialists and the transgender community to deliver a high quality, patient centred service, supporting patients through their surgical journey.
TransPlus
This year, we were pleased to announce that NHS England has awarded our Trust the contract to deliver TransPlus—the first integrated gender, sexual health and HIV service to be commissioned in England.
TransPlus was designed and developed by colleagues at 56 Dean Street, in collaboration with service users. Since 2020, it has delivered invaluable care and support to more than 700 patients—including diagnosing gender dysphoria, hormone initiation and monitoring, speech and language therapy, and surgical referral alongside an extensive wellbeing programme.
This follows the establishment of the CCGS earlier this year, making Chelsea and Westminster the first NHS Trust to offer both medical and surgical care for gender dysphoria.
In 2023, in collaboration with teams at 56 Dean Street and TransPlus, we created an online course to provide training for staff who wish to do better by their trans and non-binary service users and create a safe and affirming environment. This course covers vital topics such as terminology, the importance of pronouns, and understanding gender diversity and sexuality both within the workplace and outside.
mpox
Our Trust was one of three NHS sites to begin a pilot in 2022 offering eligible patients smaller but equally effective doses of the vaccine used for the UK’s mpox outbreak, stretching existing supplies to protect more people. This approach is known as ‘fractional dosing’, which we offer across all of our sexual health sites.
Currently, we are leading on the mpox outbreak, treating a large proportion of the cases in the UK, and vaccinating high-risk groups.
Most recently, the Trust is supporting the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), with a study to better understand how the body reacts to the mpox virus and produces antibodies. This is a 12-month study launched in May 2023, whereby people are invited by the Trust to take part in the LIMIT study.
Our sexual health clinics and their history
Kobler and John Hunter Clinic
The Kobler Clinic was opened by Diana, Princess of Wales, in Stephens Centre on 13 Sep 1988 and will soon be celebrating its 35th anniversary. It was the first NHS service designed specifically for HIV patients.
35 years later, it is the largest specialist HIV unit in Europe and there are approximately 5,000 patients seen in the clinic. It is part of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital which cares for more than 14,000 patients living with HIV across all their services.
The Kobler Clinic has a worldwide reputation as a centre of excellence in the care of people living with HIV and a wide range of associated clinical res
earch on ageing, co-morbidities and co-infections. The Gazzard Day Unit (GDU) provides joint care with oncology, day case treatments and rapid review to those who are acutely unwell, and there is a dedicated ward, Ron Johnson, for those requiring admission. The GDU is also the dedicated area for chemotherapy treatments.
The Gazzard Day Unit is named after internationally renowned HIV expert Prof Brian Gazzard who worked as a gastroenterologist and general physician at the Trust. Not only was he instrumental in establishing the HIV unit in 1987 but he also saw one of the first cases of HIV disease in Europe in 1981. In 2011 Brian was awarded a CBE for services in healthcare.
The Kobler team prides itself on delivering world-class, holistic care to those affected by HIV.
The John Hunter Clinic for Sexual Health (JHC) is also situated within the St Stephens Centre and offers on-the-day booked sexual health appointments and specialist services. This includes emergency contraception care, PrEP appointments and sexual health support.
56 Dean Street
Initially known as ‘Outpatient 6’ and later the Victoria Clinic in 1993, 56 Dean Street was the first NHS services to offer rapid HIV POC (point of care) testing. In 2009, the clinic moved from Vincent Square to 56 Dean Street in Soho where it remains today.
In 2014, Dean Street Express opened in response to Public Health England’s recommendations for screening those at highest risk. It was the world's first sexual health clinic to have an onsite Infinity machine which allows us to give patients their results within six hours of their screening, significantly reducing transmission rates.
In Oct 2017, The Trust was the first to report an 80% drop in new HIV diagnoses since 2015, and continues to fight HIV through studies such as PROUD, showing the effectiveness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) leading to the recent PrEP Impact Trial through Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England.
Having pioneered the use of HIV PrEP in the UK for several years, 56 Dean Street now supports more than 30,000 people who take the HIV prevention medicine.
10 Hammersmith Broadway
Prior to its official opening, this service was known as the West London Centre for Sexual Health (WLCSH), which was originally based in Charing Cross Hospital.
This move was imperative for improving access to sexual health services in the borough, helping the team to develop services in line with the needs of service users, facilitating the delivery of holistic HIV, sexual health and contraception care. The move allowed greater appointment availability, adding an extra 2,000 appointments per month, and the use of the latest technology to deliver a quicker turnaround of results, preventing the transmission of sexually transmitted infections.
Most recently, 10HB played an integral role in the mpox vaccination drive, which began in May 2022. Having diagnosed one of the first mpox cases in the UK, the clinic played a vital role in London's effort to manage the mpox epidemic. As of Jun 2023, 10HB have administered more than 20,000 mpox vaccines since May last year and tested more than 2,200 patients.
Sexual Health Hounslow
Hounslow is a diverse borough and the services offered by SHH reflects this, with sexual health testing, treatments including PrEP, PEP, vaccines, treatments for STIs, and full range of contraceptive methods such as implants, intrauterine devices and pills.
Importantly, SHH offers walk-ins for service users who might not be able to access services by telephone or online. This includes potentially vulnerable groups like asylum seekers, young people, sex workers and to those whose first language is not English. We also support the MSM (men who have sex with men) population with targeted clinics at our community site in Heart of Hounslow and Feltham Centre for Health.
In Dec 2021, SHH received a Trust PROUD award for their hard work and support throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as many doctors, nurses and HCSs were redeployed to ITU and other wards at the peaks.
Looking ahead, SHH has signed a new contract with Hounslow Borough Council to take responsibility for overseeing all sexual health services in Hounslow and for providing all basical sexual health provisions. This aims to improve uptake of young and vulnerable communities, improve chlamydia screening under 25 and improve provision of protection within the community. In addition, we are a training hub for local GP and pharmacy services to support the implementation of the new contract.
Gillian Avery RN, Clinic Manager, says: “We are proud of our achievements and are proud to provide services for the residents of Hounslow. We are also proud of our refurbished young persons area in Twickenham House which—with its bright colours, comfy sofa and phone charging points—is a welcoming space for young people to wait.”
CW+
Recent awards and nominations
Awards
- Sexual Health London: Public/Private Partnership of the Year Award, HealthInvestor (2023)
- Darren Brown, Specialist Physiotherapist in HIV and Oncology: Elisse Zack Award for Excellence in HIV Rehabilitation (2023)
- Dr Alan McOwan, 56 Dean Street: BASHH Outstanding Achievement Award (2023)
- Dwayne-Wilson Hunt, Sexual Health Charge Nurse: RCN Rising Star Award (2022)
- Sexual Health London: HSJ Award for Optimising Pathways Through Digital Award (2023)
Nominations
- Klick: HSJ award for Empowering Patients Through Digital (2023)
- Hasan Mohammed, Specialist Pharmacist for GUM and HIV: Nominated for two excellent awards at Clinical Pharmacy Congress (2023)