Camberwell Sexual Health Centre

A series of abstract drawings is creating a warm welcome for visitors to the groundbreaking Camberwell Sexual Health Centre, which has won the 'Clinical Service Redesign' category of the Health Service Journal awards, the most prestigious healthcare management awards in the NHS.

The Centre, part of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the first of its kind in the UK, is an innovative service providing advice in an accessible format. The Charity's Modernisation Initiative helped reconfigure services for a user-friendly approach, including self-service machines where people can obtain free condoms, pregnancy testing and sexual health screening kits without seeing a healthcare professional. The Centre was designed in consultation with local sexual health service users and makes it much easier for people to access services when they need them.

HSJ judges praised the project as being "ambitious and innovative", with an "impressive range of user and client involvement".

The new services, combined with flexible opening hours and a visible high street presence, have increased visitor numbers. Rachel Paxford-Jenkins, Business Manager for Reproductive and Sexual Health at King’s, said: “The Centre has been an enormous success since it opened, and being short-listed for the Health Service Journal awards is recognition for all the hard work and commitment staff have shown.”

Charity Chief Executive Geoffrey Shepherd added: “We are delighted that the achievements of the service have been recognised by the HSJ. Transformations were achieved through genuine consultation with service users for an exemplary model of service. This award serves as a reminder of the lasting legacy of excellence which the Charity’s Modernisation Initiative brought about.”

The Charity's art commission for the Centre comprises seven images by Lothar Goetz, each with a unique design and colour palette. The drawings are framed in clear perspex boxes and mounted on coloured card which echoes the interior design. A mix of geometric lines, wheels and shapes evoke symbols of the natural and mechanical world.