Category: NHS
-
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.…
-
Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) has in recent years become a well established option for people looking to avoid infection with HIV. As Niamh Fleming-Kelb recently wrote for us, however, fewer women than men are taking the opportunities PrEP offers: less than 4% of all PrEP prescriptions in the UK are for women. Currently, PrEP most commonly comes…
-
The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has issued a joint statement with figures from across government, healthcare and the third sector redoubling a shared commitment to ending new cases of HIV in England by the start of the next decade. In the joint press release, Sir Keir says: With this government, you will not be…
-
New data from UKHSA that reveals a sharp rise in syphilis infections nationwide, and here in the West Midlands in particular, reminds us that syphilis has not gone away – and we must work harder to prevent it, diagnose it, and treat it. There are usually three stages of syphilis. The first, known as primary…
-
The roll-out of opt-out testing across forty-seven sites nationwide hits the West Midlands today. All patients aged 16 and over attending the emergency department at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital will now be routinely tested for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections if they are already having a blood test taken. This fantastic progress will…
-
‘Peter’ from Walsall feels let down by care he received as a person living with HIV. In this piece for ITV News, ‘Peter’ – from Walsall – speaks about his experience accessing surgery in the NHS as a person living with HIV: I was on the trolly outside the doors to the operating theatre at…
-
It was great to have our work featured on BBC Midlands Today for World AIDS Day, and especially to have the opportunity to send the message that HIV testing really does save lives. With opt-out testing arriving in Birmingham in the new year, now really is the time to raise awareness about HIV today, and…
-
Saving Lives strongly welcomes the government’s decision to fund opt-out A&E HIV and Hepatitis testing in high-prevalence areas across England. This intervention will significantly improve detection rates of HIV, and therefore the health outcomes of those living with the virus. Many people infected with HIV are not aware of their status because they are yet…
-
A symposium on opt-out testing was hosted with Andy Street in central Birmingham last week, with figures from government, the NHS and charities uniting to emphasise the importance of default testing for HIV among patients admitted to Accident & Emergency. Turnout alone was suggestive of how important the West Midlands HIV community believe opt-out testing…
-
Saving Lives has been very happy to supply the testing services to this year’s National HIV Testing Week activity in Birmingham. Flying under the collective banned of Fast Track Cities Birmingham, a range of NHS and charitable organisations have joined forces this last week to undertake testing outreach across the city. A mobile testing van…