WHAT WE DO
SHIP has been teaching rapid sexual health risk assessment over two decades; we understand the key role for sexual health prevention and care in the primary care context.
SHIP training is an educational programme originally conceived over 20 years ago by a Birmingham GP, Dr Philippa Matthews, and her colleagues Judith Mullineux and Rita Ireson. For over fifteen years SHIP successfully delivered sexual health education to many primary care clinicians and teams across Birmingham. Latterly it was funded by Public Health England and was based in the Heart of England Foundation Trust (HEFT). SHIP started delivering training in London in 2008 in collaboration with a range of other organisations including Haringey Public Health and MEDFASH as well as the South East London Sexual Health and HIV Network.
When working in new areas, SHIP aims to identify and train new peer educators, who will often act as catalysts for change in their own practices as well as in other local contexts. After HEFT sexual health stopped operating in 2016 and MEDFASH closed in December 2016 we set up SHIP community interest company (not for profit organisation) in order to continue developing and delivering SHIP teaching.
This increase in testing was a six-fold increase in GP testing rates during the period of observation, a 16% increase in practice HIV testing rates per GP trained (testing rate ratio 1.16, 95% CI 1.05-1.28, p value 0.004). The increase was also sustained over the 6 year observation period and driven by practices in high prevalence areas (>2 per 1000)
SHIP training produces a significant, sustained increase in HIV testing in primary care for each GP trained in a high prevalence area of the UK.
Compared with general population screening, HIV tests used in routine clinical care in general practice in Haringey have a high probability of detecting a positive person (1.42% average positivity). This evaluation is a ‘real life’ measure of the impact that commissioners of SHIP could expect in comparable areas of the UK. Impact may be explained by the components of SHIP training that distinguish it from ineffective interventions such our focus on rapid risk assessment and specific verbal strategies appropriate for the primary care setting.
“SHIP is an educational intervention, closely tailored to the general practice setting, delivering peer-developed and peer-led face-to-face training for GPs and practice nurses to improve quality of sexual and reproductive health care.”
- case study for good practice by NICE
References
1. Pillay K, Gardner M, Gould A, Otiti S, Mullineux J, Bärnighausen T, et al. Long term effect of primary health care training on HIV testing: A quasi-experimental evaluation of the Sexual Health in Practice (SHIP) intervention. 2018; PLoS ONE 13(8): e0199891.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199891
2. Pillay TD, Mullineux J, Smith CJ, Matthews P. Unlocking the potential: longitudinal audit finds multifaceted education for general practice increases HIV testing and diagnosis. Sexually transmitted infections. 2013;89(3):191–6. Epub 2012/10/10. pmid:23044438
https://sti.bmj.com/content/89/3/191
3. Mullineux J, Firmstone V, Matthews P, Ireson R. (2008)Innovative Sexual Health Education for General Practice: An Evaluation of the Sexual Health in Practice (SHIP) Scheme. Education for Primary Care. 2008;19(4):397–407.https://doi.org/10.1080/14739879.2008.11493704