Chlamydia measures 'inadequate'

The Government has no idea if a programme to drive down chlamydia infections is having an effect, MPs have claimed.




Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexual infection and more than half of all new cases in 2008 were among under-25s. If left untreated, it can lead women to suffer pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and ectopic pregnancies.

Five years after the programme's launch, just 4.9% of people aged 15 to 25 were being tested despite the target being 15%. It was only when the Department of Health forced primary care trusts (PCTs) to make it a priority that testing rates increased - to 15.9% in 2008/09 against a 17% target.


Tory MP Edward Leigh, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said: "The Department of Health left it to primary care trusts to organise locally all the buying and commissioning of equipment and services needed to run the chlamydia testing programme.

"This hands-off approach led to duplication of effort and inefficiency. And the department did not know how much the PCTs were spending on testing or have any mechanism to measure what impact the programme was having on levels of infection.

"The department lacked urgency in trying to reach the high volume of testing required to reduce the prevalence of chlamydia."