Saving Lives warmly welcomes today’s HIV Action Plan, and sees it as an extremely positive signal of society’s shared commitment to ending new HIV transmissions by 2030.
Unveiled by the government today, the HIV Action Plan prioritises tackling stigma, powering testing and ensuring those diagnosed access today’s life-saving treatments. £170m has been allocated to delivery.
In particular, the HIV Action Plan commits to a further three years of funding for the transformative opt-out testing for HIV in Emergency Departments, and allocates a further tranche of funding to a national programme to re-engage people into life-saving HIV care and treatment.
In Birmingham and the West Midlands, Saving Lives has been working alongside NHS Trusts in promoting and advocating for ED opt-out testing in recent years, and has been commissioned in both Birmingham and the Black Country to deliver peer support in our region as part of these efforts.
102 people in the Midlands have been diagnosed with HIV, and 716 with Hepatitis B and C, since A&E departments started routinely testing blood for the viruses.
We have long advocated for an increase in testing, aligned with widespread anti-stigma campaigns, as a means of fighting HIV. Today’s announcements represent not just a continuation of work begun, but a redoubling and expansion of our efforts.
Keir Starmer has said: “My message is simple – no one should ever have to fight HIV alone. Together, we will end the cycle of transmission, improve treatment and better protect people.”
The charity’s Medical Director, Dr Steve Taylor, has responded to the plans and their associated goals: “Opt-out ED testing has been a fantastic program. We have found so many people who would never have been diagnosed if we had not been doing this We are quite literally ‘Saving Lives, One Blood Test at a Time.’
“We need to continue to increase and normalise testing for HIV and other blood-borne viruses, like Hepatitis B and C. I’d love to see us expand opt-out testing into other settings, including primary care.”
Dan Hartland, CEO of the charity, said: “Today, people living with HIV who are on treatment can enjoy a normal life expectancy, live full lives and will not pass on the virus to their partners.
“Testing remains the only way to know your status and access this transformational therapy – we should all be taking a test. Today’s announcement offers a route to ensuring we can.”
