Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 May 2024
658. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Health the number of approved PrEP clinics available in Dublin; and the number of new patients each is currently accepting, along with an average wait time to be admitted to each service, in tabular form. [21854/24]
View answer659. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Health the number of available average weekly slots for the gay men's health service; and the estimated weekly demand. [21855/24]
View answer660. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Health if he accepts that demand for PrEP clinics in Dublin is currently more than the capacity of the system; and the steps being taken to address the gap in provision. [21856/24]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 658 to 660, inclusive, together.
The National Sexual Health Strategy, 2015-2020, (NSHS), was launched in October 2015 and is implemented by the HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme (SHCPP), who oversee sexual health services. Following stakeholder consultation and an independent review, the Strategy is currently being re-drafted, a refreshed version will be published in 2024. The Review identified 56 Priority Actions, of which 49 were assessed as having been successfully progressed.
A national HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programme commenced in November 2019, following a HIQA HTA, which concluded that its introduction would be safe, effective, and cost saving. Free PrEP medication is available to individuals who meet clinical eligibility criteria, attending HSE approved PrEP services. These include public PrEP services, some general practice (GP) services and private providers. There are currently 13 approved public PrEP services and 17 private or general practitioner (GP) PrEP providers. Appointments at the 13 public PrEP services is free of charge, however, the private providers charge for consultations.
The number of people eligible to access PrEP has been expanding since inception, with the number of individuals reimbursed for PrEP at least once expanding from 1763 in 2020 (the first full year of service delivery, to 3388 in 2022 and 3802 by Q4, 2023. While the PrEP service continued to grow in 2023, many PrEP services are reaching (or have reached) capacity and service users are reporting challenges accessing appointments.
Further work is required to understand the extent of the unmet need/demand for PrEP, which has been estimated as circa 30%. Additional funding of €600,000 has been allocated in 2024 to further support delivery of the PrEP scheme. A number of additional measures to increase capacity have been deployed, including administrative efficiencies, the use of telephone consultations and the free home STI testing scheme for routine tests. In order to increase the number of providers, a PrEP competency framework and eLearning platform has been developed.
The SHCPP is continuing to work with the multidisciplinary PrEP working group to develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation framework for the PrEP programme. Understanding and responding to unmet demand and need is a core component of this work. The HSE Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) also provide data to SHCPP on a regular basis to monitor PrEP activity, including data around new PrEP users.
In terms of the number of approved PrEP clinics available in Dublin, the number of new patients each is currently accepting, average waiting times for service access, average weekly slots for the GMHS and estimated weekly demand for same, as these are service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
