Welcoming Janet Barter to the London Sexual Health Programme

We are delighted to welcome Janet Barter to the London Sexual Health Programme, where she has joined as Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinical Lead. With more than three decades of experience across women’s health, Janet brings deep clinical expertise, system-wide insight, and a strong commitment to collaboration and equity in sexual and reproductive healthcare.

Janet has worked in sexual and reproductive health since 1995, with a career spanning contraception, psychosexual medicine, genitourinary medicine, gynaecology, abortion care, menopause, and medical education. Most recently, she served as President of the College of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare for three years, a role she held until September 2025.

“That role taught me a huge amount about where the system works well, and where it could work much better,” Janet explains. “Joining the London Sexual Health Programme felt like a real opportunity. Together, we have the chance to show how things can be done differently in London, particularly as we develop a new London-wide sexual and reproductive health strategy.”

Janet’s career path has given her a rare perspective across primary, community, and secondary care. After qualifying as a GP, she went into obstetrics and gynaecology before moving into sexual and reproductive health as the specialty itself was emerging.

“I was only a GP for six months, but it was incredibly formative,” she says. “General practice teaches you how to listen. GPs understand that you won’t always cure things, but that listening carefully helps you understand what is really troubling a patient – whether that’s physical health, safety, or mental wellbeing.”

For the past 11 years, Janet has worked as an SRH consultant at Barts Health, delivering care across community and integrated sexual health services. She currently leads a Women’s Health Hub that brings together primary care, sexual and reproductive health, and gynaecology. The service triages gynaecology referrals to ensure patients are directed to the right care, at the right time.

“Working across GP and secondary care is innovative, but it’s also hard,” she notes. “Contracts, staffing, systems – everything is different. But it matters, because women don’t experience their health in silos.”

Janet is particularly passionate about ensuring women have multiple, joined-up ways to access care. While expanded online STI testing and screening have been vital developments, she believes they must sit alongside broader, holistic entry points into care.

“Women need lots of different front doors – GP, integrated sexual health clinics, health hubs, pharmacies, maternity services, abortion services. There shouldn’t be one ‘correct’ place to go, but many opportunities to talk about what matters to them.”

This requires stronger collaboration across the system: pharmacies keeping GPs informed, gynaecology services offering contraception, and all services understanding and responding to HIV and sexual health needs.

“At the moment, fragmented commissioning makes this difficult. NHS commissioning for abortion, local authority commissioning for contraception, different arrangements again for pharmacy. But London has a real opportunity to show that this can work much better.”

Janet’s long-standing interest in women’s health is rooted in both clinical fascination and social justice.

“Women’s lives are complex and interesting. Over a lifetime, most women will navigate contraception, abortion, maternity, menopause and more. When I worked in Africa earlier in my career, it was very clear that women’s health was seen as integral to the health of society. If we don’t look after women, we don’t have a healthy society.”

She points to maternity services as a clear example.

“We talk about women being older and less healthy when they get pregnant, yet we pay very little attention to helping women optimise their health before pregnancy. Contraception is still too often treated as a ‘nice to have’, rather than essential healthcare.”

As part of her work with LSHP, Janet is keen to ensure women’s voices directly shape future strategy. She hopes to establish a reference group of women to inform the new London-wide sexual and reproductive health strategy.

“Women have concerns about hormones, coils, and contraception, but do we really understand what they want? We only ever see the women who make it into clinic.”

Equity is central to Janet’s approach. She regularly sees women who are unsure how to access services and who experience poorer care as a result.

“Some women believe the only way to avoid an unwanted or damaging pregnancy is to avoid sex altogether. That tells us how far we still must go. Sexual safety and choice are crucial, and we must reach everyone.”

Janet’s arrival strengthens the London Sexual Health Programme at a pivotal moment. Her experience, leadership, and commitment to joined-up, equitable care will play a key role in shaping the future of sexual and reproductive health across London.

Mona Hayat, Programme Director says “We are exceptionally lucky to have Janet join us within the Programme. We now have two exceptional clinical leaders in Darren and Janet who with their experience and peripheral vision, execute clinical and strategic leadership and tackle complex solutions at scale. The LSHP are grateful to be working alongside such talented colleagues who have meaningful complimentary skills”