Archived: SH:24

Updated 27 June 2018

SH: 24 is an online sexual health service, developed with grant funding from Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust charity and delivered in partnership with the NHS. SH:24 has contracts with a range of organisations, including NHS Trusts and 18 local authorities to provide people with free sexually transmitted infection (STI) test kits, information and advice, 24 hours a day. The service can also offer online treatment for Chlamydia infection and contraceptive pills (fulfilled by post).

SH:24 was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 26 September 2016 and have a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

How we inspected this service

This inspection was carried out by a CQC lead inspector. The team also included a second CQC inspector with remote support from a GP specialist advisor.

During the visit at the headquarters we:

• Spoke with a range of staff.
• Reviewed organisational documents.

Why we inspected this service

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service had responded to the previously identified breach of regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.  

Updated 27 June 2018

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced focused inspection at SH: 24 on 25 April 2018 to follow up on breache of regulation found during the previous inspection.

We previously inspected SH: 24 on 12 July 2017. The full comprehensive report of this inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all services’ link for SH:24 on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

SH: 24 is a community interest company that aims to improve access to sexual and reproductive health care through the provision of online sexual and reproductive health services. The services include testing for HIV, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea and the prescription of oral contraceptives and treatment of chlamydia.

Our findings in relation to the key question was as follows:

Are services safe? – We found the service was providing a safe service in accordance with the relevant regulations. Specifically:

• A new system was in place to verify service user age to fulfil the age limitation requirements.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice