SEXUAL health and HIV patients are being turned away from clinics because new cash is not getting through, it is said.

Almost two thirds of clinics say they have had to refuse treatment - despite almost 90% of the saying they have had more people asking for help.

A report, Disturbing Symptoms, the fourth annual survey of how primary care trusts manage sexual health and HIV in 2005, is out today.

It is published by the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV, the British HIV Association, Providers of Aids Care and Treatment and the Terrence Higgins Trust.

It calls for urgent action to tackle the sexual health crisis. The report comes as Yorkshire and Humberside is due to receive £8.2m additional cash for sexual health services in April.

Latest figures show Huddersfield Central Primary Care Trust has allocated £190,526 for sexual health.

The South Huddersfield PCT has allocated £104,594, there is £246,946 for North Kirklees and £278,194 for Calderdale.

David Greenway, the Terrence Higgins Trust's regional manager in Yorkshire, said: "The Government has provided very clear guidance that sexual health services must be prioritised, together with the 48 hours access target and extra cash to help modernise services.

"It's now in the hands of primary care trusts to make this a local opportunity and ensure that extra cash is spent making those improvements.

"This is our best chance to reverse the shocking trend of declining sexual health in England.

"Failure to take it will leave service problems untreated and festering, with dreadful consequences for the sexual health of the nation."

The report says sexual health in England continues to worsen, with diagnoses of HIV and almost all other sexually transmitted infections rising year on year.

The UK has the worst sexual health in Western Europe and the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections since the end of the Second World War.