INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT
The National Chlamydia Screening Programme (NCSP) is already underway in England and the last phase of the programme rolled out in April this year, with the aim of covering all primary care trusts (PCTs) in England by 2007.
The pilot studies that took place in Portsmouth and the Wirral in England demonstrated general practice is feasible as a venue for screening; it identified the most number of cases outside GUM in both pilot sites, with positivity rates of up to 10%.1
Since the rollout of the screening programme, general practice comprised 42% (131 out of 310) of all screening sites in phase 1. Although participation of general practices was not mandatory, it was included on a ‘cost-neutral’ basis. Compared with the pilots, a much lower proportion of screening was done in general practice (10%) but the positivity was comparable with that of community contraceptive clinics (10% versus 10.9% respectively).
The first annual report acknowledged engaging general practice was a challenge, even though some innovative strategies were used to facilitate this.2,3 By the time the second annual report …