Chlamydia screening wastes cash, say MPs

Measures to check progress of the screening programme across health trusts in England are inadequate, they said.

The latest report from the Public Accounts Committee comes after a damning National Audit Office study in November said millions of pounds of taxpayers' money was wasted in the first four years because lessons were not learned on how best to implement the tests.

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 per cent of people aged 15 to 25 were being tested. The target was 15 per cent.

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 per cent in 2008/09 against a 17 per cent target.

Today's report from MPs said: "Since the programme's launch an estimated 100m has been spent but the department does not yet know what effect, if any, this has had on reducing the prevalence of the infection.

"The department's lack of urgency in pressing PCTs to reach a high volume of testing means that the programme has not yet reached the level of activity where models predict that the prevalence of chlamydia will be significantly reduced.

"As a result, more young people than necessary are still being infected and potential savings to the NHS in treating the consequences of chlamydia infection have been lost."

The report noted that the cost of testing varies between health trusts and there is inefficient commissioning of services and equipment.