Archived: METRO - Greenwich

Updated 28 June 2017

METRO is an equality and diversity charity. It provides health, community and youth services across London and the South East and participates in national and international projects. The charity aims to promote health, wellbeing and equality through youth services, mental health and wellbeing services, sexual and reproductive health and HIV services. METRO works with anyone experiencing issues related to gender, sexuality, diversity or identity.

METRO Greenwich has been registered with the CQC for the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder and injury since 27 July 2014. The service has a CQC registered manager.

Within the Royal London Borough of Greenwich, METRO is commissioned, by the borough, to provide the Pitstop Clinic.

The Pitstop clinic is a free HIV and sexual health screening clinic for men who have sex with men (MSM). The clinic offers HIV, hepatitis B, syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia testing, as well as hepatitis B vaccination. On occasion, where a need was identified, the clinic was also commissioned to provide hepatitis A vaccination. The clinic served adult men, however as the clinic was open access, it was possible that service users under the age of 18 and under the age of sexual consent could present at the clinic. In the period from 1 January 2016 to 1 January 2017 there was one patient aged 16. In addition, whilst the clinic was aimed at men, occasionally the charity is commissioned to provide additional services for women on an ad hoc basis in collaboration with Greenwich Sexual Health Central for Lesbian and Bi women Sexual health Week, for example, cervical smear tests.

The Pitstop clinic operates a drop-in service on Wednesdays between 18:30 and 20:30 at its main Greenwich clinic on Greenwich High Road and on Saturdays from 11:00 to 13:00 from within the Market Street Health Centre in Woolwich. There were approximately 500 visits to the clinic in the reporting period of January 2016 to January 2017.

The clinic is staffed by a pool of three bank specialist sexual health and HIV nurses in addition to six managers, support staff and a number of volunteers. The clinic also has an online portal where service users can access their test results, assess their risk of contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and obtain information and support.

The service has not previously been inspected by the CQC.

Updated 28 June 2017

The Pitstop clinic is a free HIV and sexual health screening clinic for men who have sex with men (MSM). The clinic offers HIV, hepatitis B, syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia testing, as well as hepatitis B vaccination.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• The service had developed its own social media platform, through which service users could record their sexual activity, for example the type of sex they had had, with whom and whether they had been using alcohol or drugs at the time. This generated an individualised risk assessment for HIV and other STIs.
• Staff carried out outreach work and advertised the clinic through digital social applications in order to direct the advice and awareness of the clinic to potential service users.
• Following a number of attacks on men who used digital social apps, staff provided safety information for service users on how to protect themselves and use apps safely. Additional safety information was available on their website.
• The provider offered a third party hate crime reporting service.
• The provider facilitated support groups both for people over the age of 50, and for young people. The groups provided emotional support and a safe space for individuals to discuss their concerns and needs with their peers.