Published: Thursday, 4th September, 2008 17:00
Health Secretary praises Royal Berks
By James Kell
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Health Secretary Alan Johnson with Royal Berkshire Trust chief executive Anne Sheen
HEALTH Secretary Alan Johnson praised staff at the Royal Berks in a visit to the hospital today.
Mr Johnson was given a guided tour around a new building on Craven Road housing a sexual health clinic and breast screening facilities.
Officially opening the £2.6m building, the Secretary praised staff for creating a welcoming environment for patients and commended the breast screening clinic in particular for the number of women they have screened since opening in February last year.
He said: “A lot of this is about prevention as well. Nationally, on average we see 75% of eligible women, but here they are getting an 82% rate and that’s excellent. That’s only 18% who chose not to come to a programme which is saving 13,000 lives a year.”
After touring the sexual health clinic, Mr Johnson said the new facility was ‘welcoming and accessible’ and would encourage more people to come forward and be treated for sexually transmitted infections.
He said there was a risk people had become complacent about sexual health since the major public information campaigns on HIV in the 1980s and added: “We’ve recently seen a big increase in gonorrhoea for the first time in a long time, so we’ve introduced a big increase in funding in that area.
“You have to welcome people in, you can’t frog march them into these places. A few years ago you’d see sexual health clinics stuck away and they weren’t for polite conversation. Now if people want to come in because they think they have a problem, all appointments will be within 48 hours and they know they can come here and speak frankly to people who are absolutely professional.”
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