In the UK, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is largely delivered within sexual health services, which also provide testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), vaccination, and other prevention interventions. Few data describe how PrEP provision aligns with broader sexual health activity within these settings, despite ongoing public health pressures, including rising syphilis rates, multidrug-resistant gonorrhoea and outbreaks of mpox.
We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of routinely collected clinical data from four sexual health clinics within an NHS Trust between October 2022 and October 2023. The analyses were attendance-based, excluding contraception-only visits, reflecting PrEP-related encounters rather than individual users. Of 194 117 attendances, 24% involved PrEP initiation or continuation. These were predominantly among cisgender men who have sex with men, accounting for 88% of PrEP-related attendances, compared with 39% of non-PrEP attendances.
PrEP-related attendances often included other prevention and care activities. Vaccination was administered in 13% of PrEP-related attendances. Diagnoses…