North West England, from Blackpool to Manchester: health services and safety

The North West has a handful of large sexual health services, each covering several council areas. All are free and confidential, and you don't need a GP referral. Details checked on 18 October 2026.

Find your service

Three big services cover Lancashire, Manchester and much of Merseyside and Cheshire. If your area isn't in this table, the NHS finder will match you to the right one.

Blackpool and Lancashire

Blackpool and Lancashire Sexual Health Services test for and treat STIs, including HIV, at clinics across Blackpool and Lancashire, along with other sexual health conditions; the NHS directory names Whitegate Health Centre in Blackpool and Royal Preston Hospital among its sites. Call 0300 1234 154 to book an appointment at any of their clinics. If your postcode starts with FY, PR, LA, L, WN, BB or OL, you can book online instead.

Blackpool's a weekend-break town as much as a home town, so if you met someone while visiting, it's worth knowing you can test at home once you're back: see the free STI testing guide for how home kits work around the UK.

Manchester: The Northern

The Northern is the contraception, sexual health and HIV service for Manchester, with its hub at The Hathersage Centre, 280 Upper Brook Street, M13 0FH. Call 0161 701 1555, email thenorthernISH.enquiries@mft.nhs.uk or see thenorthernsexualhealth.co.uk for opening times.

Services at the hub include:

• STI and HIV testing
• PEP and PrEP
• Emergency contraception, and long-acting contraception such as the implant and coil
• Pregnancy testing and advice
• Free condoms

Greater Manchester's other boroughs are listed on the NHS clinic finder.

Liverpool and surrounding areas: Axess

Axess Sexual Health is the free NHS service for Liverpool, Knowsley, Cheshire East, Warrington and Halton, run by Liverpool University Hospitals and based at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Prescot Street, L7 8XP. Through axess.clinic you can find your nearest clinic, order an STI test and book an appointment.

Beyond testing and treatment, Axess offers contraception including emergency contraception, PEP and PrEP, and smear tests, and links to a community specialist HIV nursing service.

Before you ring a clinic

Booking lines move faster if you have a few things ready. None of it is compulsory, and you can stay vague about details you'd rather not share.

• Your postcode, so they can confirm which service covers you.
• Whether you have symptoms, and roughly when they started.
• When you last had sex without a condom, which affects which tests are worth doing and when.
• Whether you might need PEP or emergency contraception, which clinics treat as urgent.

If you'd like the conversation with a new partner to happen before the clinic rather than after, try something like this, as an example: "I get tested every few months when I'm seeing new people. When were you last checked?" Said early and matter-of-factly, it's just logistics.

PEP and emergency contraception

HIV PEP must start within 72 hours of sex, the sooner the better. The Northern and Axess both list PEP among their services, so phone or check their websites first thing; if your clinic is closed, go to A&E rather than waiting.

Emergency contraception is free from clinics and, since October 2025, from most community pharmacies in England, after a private chat with the pharmacist. More on both on the sexual health hub.

After a sexual assault

The two big sexual assault referral centres (SARCs) in the region both accept people who haven't reported to the police.

St Mary's Centre in Manchester, the SARC for Greater Manchester, runs a 24-hour advice line on 0161 276 6515, every day of the year. It offers forensic examinations, independent sexual violence advisers (ISVAs) and counselling to people in Greater Manchester, whether the assault was recent or in the past. Cheshire residents can get immediate crisis support and forensic services there too. If you'd rather write than call, St Mary's takes email at stmarys.sarc@mft.nhs.uk, and it runs a separate clinic for children and young people. If you decide to speak to the police later, it can support you through that as well.

The Lancashire SAFE Centre at Royal Preston Hospital serves people across Lancashire, with a 24-hour phone line staffed by a sexual offence examiner or crisis worker. Call 01772 523344 on weekdays 8am to 4pm, or 01772 716565 at other times. Adults aged 18 and over can refer themselves.

Merseyside and Cumbria residents can find their nearest SARC through the NHS.

The free Rape Crisis 24/7 Support Line, 0808 500 2222, takes calls from anyone 16 or over in England and Wales. In an emergency call 999, and press 55 if you can't speak.

Reporting scams and crimes

• Dating fraud: your bank first (159 connects you safely to most UK banks), then Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040.
• Threats, harassment or intimate image abuse: call 101 and ask for your local force: Lancashire Constabulary, Greater Manchester Police, Merseyside Police, Cheshire Constabulary or Cumbria Constabulary. In an emergency, 999.
• A member who worries you: flag their username to the members help centre.

Meeting someone in the North West

A night out in Manchester or a weekend in Blackpool is exactly when plans get made in a hurry. A few things keep it fun:

1. Meet in a busy bar or café first, not a hotel room or a flat.
2. Share your plans and your date's profile name with a friend.
3. Keep enough charge, and enough money, to get yourself home.
4. Stay clear-headed enough to make your own decisions, and remember that someone who is very drunk can't consent.

Agreeing what you both want before you meet makes the evening simpler; the guide to saying what you want has example wording. Run through the meeting safely checklist first, and keep the scam reporting guide handy if a match starts asking for money. National numbers are on the safety and consent page, and the Yorkshire and the Humber guide covers the other side of the Pennines.