Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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558. To ask the Minister for Health his views on whether a reconsideration of the HSE's decision to discontinue essential clinical health services relating to PrEP in the gay men's health service is required, as this has left Dublin without any dedicated LGBT sexual health service in a community setting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31761/20]

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented interruptions to normal healthcare activity, with most services affected, including STI clinics. However, significant efforts continue to be made in terms of continuing with service provision.

STI Clinics are conducting virtual clinics where possible, with attendance in person limited to appointment only. Service restrictions are predominantly due to social distancing requirements; waiting rooms can now only hold a fraction of patients compared to before the pandemic. Priority is being given to those with symptoms or requiring testing and treatment.

The HSE’s Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme advise that the closure of the GMHS relates to the necessary redeployment of personnel to COVID-19 testing and contact tracing duties. Work is ongoing with other services, stakeholders and community groups in order to provide the best possible service to GMHS service users under the current circumstances.

The public PrEP services in Dublin have been contacted to request accommodation of GMHS PrEP service users, to the greatest extent possible within the context of current service restrictions. More recently, agreement has been reached with the GUIDE Clinic; all GMHS PrEP users will continue to be facilitated in GUIDE for follow up appointments.

Phone lines, the GMHS website and other resources such as man2man,ie and sexual wellbeing.ie are regularly updated to reflect current service delivery and to signpost users to the HSE list of approved PrEP services.

At a national level, the HSE advise that staff recruitment is ongoing with regard to the dedicated provision of COVID-19 services. It is envisaged that this will enable staff from other health services, including GMHS, to return to their respective positions and resume service delivery in due course.

As this is a service matter, I have also asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.