Vending machines offering test kits for sexually transmitted diseases including syphilis and HIV are to be installed in shopping centres and community buildings. The new machines offering the sexual health testing kits have been launched in four venues across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire by Unity Sexual Health, the sexual health service led by University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust.
The vending machines aim to provide an easy, free, fast and confidential way to test for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Machines will be put at Hamilton House and at Watershed in Bristol, The Sovereign in Weston-super-Mare and Willowbrook Shopping Centre at Bradley Stoke.
The machines are being placed in publicly accessible spaces and will mean more people can get easily tested. Two types of test kits are available from the vending machines.
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One is for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, HIV and syphilis. The other is an HIV mouth swab testing kit made available for free by Unity Sexual Health Clinic for the first time.
A person using the first test kit will be able to send their sample to a lab for free and get their results by text message in one to three weeks. Someone using the HIV testing kit will have to swab the inside of their cheek with a mouth swab to get a result in just 20 minutes.
Both tests can be done at home. To get a test from a vending machine, a person will have to answer six quick questions and enter the code sent to their mobile phone into the vending machine.
Making more testing available and easier to access is particularly important for groups who find it difficult to access sexual health clinics. It is hoped the sexual health kits could help overcome some of the barriers to testing such as stigma, convenience, accessibility and privacy and reduce the number of people getting infected.
Unity Sexual Health worked with local African and Caribbean heritage communities, young people and men-who-have-sex-with-men to ensure the service meets the needs of those who might benefit from it or could otherwise find it difficult to access sexual health testing.
Increased access to testing is a priority in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire which have a higher rate of late HIV diagnosis than the national average. Sarah Stockwell, lead clinician from Unity Sexual Health, said: “We hope that placing these vending machines in public spaces around Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire will help people access tests.
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"We’re particularly excited to introduce easy, blood-free mouth swab HIV tests for the first time. We hope that this project will go some way to reducing the number of ongoing infections, as people with positive test results will be offered treatment by our service or other NHS services.
“Helping communities that find it difficult to access services through traditional channels such as sexual health clinics is a particularly important goal for us.” The service will be evaluated by researchers from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West) and the Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation (HPRU) at the University of Bristol.
Councillor Ellie King, cabinet member for Public Health and Communities at Bristol City Council, said: “This is an exciting initiative which will make it easier for people across Bristol to access sexual health tests. Having two vending machines, one inside Watershed, Harbourside and one at Hamilton House, Stokes Croft means that STI testing is no longer bound to sexual health clinics or GP practices.
"People will be able access free tests and do them at home. I hope that by having these new vending machines in prime locations in Bristol, it will help reduce the stigma of getting checked for STIs and change the way many people think and talk about sexual health testing."
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