Oldham, Rochdale & Bury Sexual Health

Since 2016, HCRG Care Group has led sexual health services across Oldham, Rochdale and Bury, serving a population of over 650,000. The service combines local collaboration with national-benchmarks and data resources to provide a fully integrated digital model and targeted clinical outreach. Rated Outstanding for Caring and Good overall by the CQC, we’re now continuing to improve quality and build resilience across the system.

HCRG Care Group took on the Oldham, Rochdale and Bury service in 2016 and was recommissioned again in 2021 – a decision that was quickly justified when in the same year, the CQC rated the service ‘Outstanding’ for Caring and Good across all other areas.

The system includes three hubs and six spoke clinics, and at the core of it all is our Care Coordination Centre (CCC).

This single point of access supports self-management, digital access, and triage for a population of 600,000. This point of contact raises awareness of alternative care options (primary care, pharmacy, community testing) and directs people to the right care, first time.

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Services include:

System leadership of sexual health services

Hub and spoke model sexual health clinics

Management of GP and pharmacy provision

In-clinic and digital STI and HIV testing and treatment

PrEP HIV Prevention

Family Planning

Contraception and LARC provision

Digital sexual health advice

Dedicated outreach nursing teams

Training programmes for partners

This service is led by

Stephen Giles

General Manager

Stephen.Giles@hcrgcaregroup.com

Stephen has been the General Manager of Sexual Health at HCRG Care Group for several years. He now also manages our Partnerships and Development to help transformation take place nationwide.

Our digital front door, developed with our established partners SH:24

Offering information in more than 140 languages, with browse-aloud and easy-read options. Local residents can order STI kits, access contraception, check timetables, book appointments, self-triage and chat with a clinician online. The result has been a rapid channel shift from calls to digital – freeing clinicians for complex cases while widening access for all.

Our outreach model is designed around prevention and equity

The outreach team use a “Clinic in a Backpack” to provide rapid STI screening and support to at-risk groups, such as sex workers, young people at risk of coercion and other vulnerable adults. This is outreach that has a ‘go anywhere, boots on the ground’ approach, based on the service user needs and lifestyle.– and enables us to prioritise those at greatest risk while maintaining access for all.

The quality of the model gave commissioners the confidence to let us expand outreach services in 2022, and our outreach and prevention is always improving through our growing understanding of national data, best practices and local partnerships. One example is our partnership with Early Break. They enable us to deliver street-based services for hidden populations of young people, and young people are also employed to scrutinise and co-produce these services through peer-to-peer interviews and mystery shopping.

Another breakthrough includes LARC activity at GP surgeries, which grew by 78% in just two years

Now more patients are seen closer to home, reducing pressure on clinics and ensuring resources are used where they have the most impact.

This shift was instigated by our strategic lead at the Oldham, Rochdale and Bury site – over the space of a year she engaged all of the GP practices in the area as well as individual GPs within the GP Federation to create a training programme under the stewardship of the Faculty of Reproductive Sexual Health. We also brought in additional support from pharmaceutical partners Bayer and Organon, with HCRG co-funding the training and dedicating a staff member to deliver the training – reflecting our commitment to invest in the wider local system and primary care to change community health for good.

Looking ahead

Following success in other regions, we’re considering how to introduce new high street clinics to replace legacy hubs with modern, cost-effective environments that sensitively normalise sexual health in a public setting and make it part of everyday community life.

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Oldham, Rochdale & Bury Sexual Health