Sex health clinic will be 'economical'

INVESTING in sexual health will have real economic benefits for the Lothians, health chiefs have said.

Defending the money spent on the new sexual health clinic at Lauriston - due to open later this year - NHS Lothian said it was not just the wellbeing of patients that would benefit.

Reducing the rate of sexually transmitted diseases locally, they said, would save money in treatment in the long-term.

And acting director for strategic planning and modernisation Alex McMahon said: "For every 1 spent on long-term contraception there is 11 coming back in other ways.

"The rate of HIV is also increasing by 10 per cent a year and that costs around 10,000 per person per year."

He was answering fellow health chiefs wondering whether the money spent on a new sexual health strategy was the best use of funds. The Lothians has one of the highest rates of STDs in Scotland.