UK health services

UK health services features

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  Policy makers’ inaction is leading people to take PrEP ‘in the wild’

  An increasing number of gay men and others at risk of HIV are seeking to protect their health with PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), but the lack of...

  From:  News

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  Increasing diversity of sexual experience – major UK study

  There has been significant change in British people’s sexual behaviour and attitudes in recent decades, according one of the largest studies ever conducted on the topic. The...

  From:  News

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  All change...

  As part of the last-ever HIV treatment update, Gus Cairns asked a number of prominent activists, movers and shakers in the world of HIV care and prevention in...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Treatment as prevention: Experts in the UK agree it works

  Roger Pebody summarises the statement released in January that should now guide how our doctors talk to us about treatment as prevention. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Tales of the late diagnosed

  Gus Cairns talks to four people who were diagnosed with HIV only just in time to save their lives – and the daughter of one who wasn’t. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  The bottom line in clinical care: The new BHIVA standards

  Gus Cairns summarises this important new document. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  "How are we going to have a baby? I’m positive and you’re not"

  Joanna Moss of the African Health Policy Network (AHPN) looks at conception and fertility guidelines and services for people living with HIV in the UK. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  The generic generation

  In the next few years, some of the most widely used HIV drugs will come off patent in the UK. Gus Cairns asks: what are the...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  A healthy – and happy – old age with HIV

  At least one-in-five people with HIV in the UK is now over 50.1 Gus Cairns asks: What’s the recipe for staying fit and happy as we age? ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Switching drugs for cost reasons – the patient experience

  In April 2011, the London Specialised Commissioning Group (LSCG), which funds HIV treatment in the capital, issued a new set of messages to clinics on HIV drug...

  From:  HIV treatment update

UK health services in your own words

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  Jewelled friends

  I have a pretty little carved wooden pill box which I’d bought in Eureka, California. It holds my tablet set for the evening if I’m...

  From: In your own words

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  Surving non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

  I was diagnosed with HIV in July 1997, aged 36 and was told I would not need HIV treatment for some years and that I...

  From: In your own words

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  The bus of doom

  I've recently read the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (which, if you haven't already read, I highly recommend). In this theological novel disguised...

  From: In your own words

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  20 years and counting

  I became infected in 1984 and this month celebrated the fact that not only was it my 51st birthday, but also I had survived twenty...

  From: In your own words

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  Life on HIV treatment – a personal perspective

  I’ve been taking HIV treatment for ten years – that's longer than the average life expectancy of someone with HIV when I was diagnosed back in 1991. I’ve...

  From: In your own words

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  Time will tell

  I was devastated when I got the news that I was HIV-positive. But I was lucky to have such a supportive GP. It was thanks...

  From: In your own words

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  Seroconversion

  I was given my diagnosis over the telephone after spending four days in hospital with meningitis. I now realise it wasn’t meningitis, it was an...

  From: In your own words

UK health services news from aidsmap

• Nine HIV diagnoses in men on PrEP waiting list, Manchester

  Nine gay men are known to have seroconverted since being put on a waiting list for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) at a single Manchester clinic, Dr Sally Jewsbury told the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) conference in ...

  01 July 2019 | Roger Pebody

• Rate of undiagnosed HIV remains high among black African heterosexuals in London

  The rate of undiagnosed HIV infection among heterosexual black Africans living in London remains unacceptably high, according to research published in JAMA Network Open. Oral testing showed that over 50% of men and 40% of women who reported they were ...

  14 May 2019 | Michael Carter

• Rapid adoption of generic HIV drugs could save NHS £7 billion by 2033

  Prescription of generic versions of antiretroviral drugs for treatment and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as soon as they come off patent would save the NHS £7 billion between 2018 and 2033, an analysis led by Public Health England has shown. By ...

  10 May 2019 | Keith Alcorn

• Most UK clinic staff now tell people about U=U, but not always in the same way

  Two presentations at this month’s British HIV Association (BHIVA) conference in Bournemouth show that most specialist healthcare workers are now informing people with HIV that if their viral load becomes undetectable as a result of taking antiretroviral therapy (ART), ...

  29 April 2019 | Gus Cairns

• First data on trans people accessing HIV care in England

  There is a dearth of data on transgender and non-binary people receiving HIV care in the UK, but Public Health England (PHE) is beginning to redress this: 123 trans people were recorded as accessing HIV care in England in ...

  23 April 2019 | Roger Pebody

• Older black HIV-positive women have more mental distress than other women with HIV, but get less help for it

  A study looking at women aged over 45 living with HIV in the UK has found that while black African and Caribbean women experience greater social isolation and subjective mental distress than white women, they are less likely ...

  17 April 2019 | Gus Cairns

• HPV vaccination for gay men effectively delivered in sexual health and HIV clinics

  A human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme targeted at men who have sex with men (MSM) can be effectively delivered using specialist sexual health and HIV clinics, according to an analysis of an English pilot study published in Eurosurveillance. Uptake ...

  10 April 2019 | Michael Carter

• First year of PrEP in Scotland: more users than expected, few dropouts, few HIV infections

  The recent report on the first year of the implementation of  pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) through the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland concludes: “Year one has been a resounding success in terms of establishing a new nationwide service ...

  02 April 2019 | Gus Cairns

• Public Health England warns that improved treatment and testing rates for STIs in the UK could be imperilled by cuts

  A review of one hundred years of diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the UK confirms that there have been sharp increases in gonorrhoea and syphilis since the historic lows of the 1990s, especially in gay and bisexual ...

  18 December 2018 | Gus Cairns

• HIV diagnoses fell in the UK in 2017 for the first time among all risk groups, all ethnicities and in all regions, annual report reveals

  The 2018 report from Public Health England is entitled Progress towards ending the HIV epidemic in the United Kingdom, and for once the note of optimism in the title is justified.The report describes an epidemic in which new ...

  29 November 2018 | Gus Cairns

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UK health services news selected from other sources

• No new cases of HIV among people in Wales taking PrEP

  Vaughan Gething, the Welsh minister for health and social services, said he was “delighted” that access to PrEP was now “fully embedded” into sexual health services.

  21 July 2019 | The Pharmaceutical Journal

• UK: Take home naloxone is not reaching those who most need it

  Naloxone is key is to addressing the current opioid crisis, but poor systemic distribution means it isn’t saving the lives it should, says Zoe Carre

  11 July 2019 | The BMJ

• NHS England recommends uncapped PrEP trial access

  NHS England have announced five steps towards better access to the HIV prevention drug PrEP, including recommending removing the capped number of places on the ongoing IMPACT Trial. This follows a meeting yesterday between Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, NAT (National AIDS Trust), Terrence Higgins Trust, and PrEPster.

  08 July 2019 | National Health Executive

• The Slow Rollout Of PrEP Is Denying Gay Men Their Right To Human Dignity

  Gay men are already a socially marginalised and stigmatised group – their health can no longer continue to be sacrificed, National AIDS Trust's Yused Azad writes

  24 June 2019 | Huffington Post

• Government is accused of 'not caring' about HIV after 'disgraceful' decision to deny people in England access to free self-testing kits

  Public Health England last year offered firms the chance to sell their self-testing kits to the NHS, but later withdrew the offer completely. In a scathing attack on the move, the manufacturer of a type of testing kit branded it 'disgraceful', 'discriminatory' and 'small-minded'.

  10 June 2019 | Daily Mail

• Government confirms sexual and reproductive health will remain with local authorities

  The Government has concluded a review of commissioning arrangements for certain public health functions, including sexual and reproductive health, that was announced in the NHS Long Term Plan. Many sexual and reproductive health clinic services are currently commissioned by local authorities through the Public Health Grant and Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, confirmed yesterday that this would remain the case.

  07 June 2019 | National AIDS Trust

• England: Government rejects NHS move on public health services

  A departmental review has decided local government will “continue to lead” on public health, putting to an end speculation the NHS would take control of these services. However, the Department of Health and Social Care’s report concluded sexual health commissioning should be shared between local councils and the NHS.

  07 June 2019 | Health Service Journal

• England: Sexual health figures mask serious trends and inequalities

  Sexual health must be sufficiently funded on a national level, to deliver high quality sexual health services and information, say the Health and Social Care Committee in its report on sexual health.

  02 June 2019 | Parliament

• Case study: HIV campaign exceeds expectations and delivers life-changing results

  A web TV series depicting the sex life of a young gay man is helping to protect others at risk of contracting HIV, as part of a successful campaign for 56 Dean Street, London's biggest NHS-run sexual health clinic.

  14 May 2019 | PR Week

• England: Sexual Health Checks Fall By Almost 250,000 As Services Suffer Severe Cuts

  Sexual and reproductive health checks have fallen by 245,000 in three years, amid “swingeing” cuts to the vital services, new figures published by the Labour party show. Spending on the facilities by local authorities fell by £56 million over the past five years, according to House of Commons library data.

  14 May 2019 | Huffington Post

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