§ 5. Mrs. Iris Robinson (Strangford) (DUP)If he will make a statement on genito-urinary medicine services in the Province. [187647]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Angela Smith)At present, genitourinary medicine services are delivered at four hospitals in Northern Ireland. The service has come under increased pressure, and work loads have doubled since 1995. I fully appreciate that waiting times for communicable diseases must be kept to a minimum and that patients should have access to a fast, effective sexual health service. To that end, a number of steps are being taken to address the current pressures.
§ Mrs. RobinsonI thank the Minister for that reply. However, she will be aware that only four consultants in Northern Ireland specialise in genito-urinary medicine, yet the Royal College of Physicians recommends that there should be one consultant to every 120,000 people. It is a matter of grave concern that we have increasing waiting lists and that we are understaffed in this specialist field of medicine. Can the Minister indicate what is being done to attract doctors, particularly junior doctors, to it? Will she consider extending the outpost clinics to rural areas of Northern Ireland rather than concentrating the services at the Royal Victoria hospital?
§ Angela SmithThe hon. Lady is right: we do have vacancies for consultants. May I tell her, though, that four specialist trainees are undergoing training and that that is sufficient for projected needs in Northern Ireland. The first of those trainees should be able to take up a specialist consultant's post in about a year's time.
The hon. Lady is also right to consider the way in which we deliver services. We are addressing that issue in terms of prevention and treatment. We are aiming to provide a more holistic approach so that people can access services not only at hospitals but in community settings such as GP surgeries.
§ Rev. Martin Smyth (Belfast, South) (UUP)The Under-Secretary referred to prevention. Although we welcome the work that has been done on treatment, does she agree that more needs to be done in sex education? Will she have a discussion with her colleague who deals with education to ascertain whether more funding can be provided to educate young people on tackling some of those problems in a world where there is so much pressure on them to experiment before they have an understanding of the issues?
§ Angela SmithThe hon. Gentleman is correct that prevention is an important part of controlling sexually transmitted infections. I assure him that education plays an important part in the 35 recommendations that the 708 Department is currently considering. We are concentrating on that not only for the young but for the not-so-young.