NHS HIV funding ‘is a total mess’

Changes in NHS funding arrangements for HIV treatments are in total disarray, a committee of MPs and peers heard last month.
Dr Margaret Johnson, the new chairman-elect of the British HIV Association (BHIVA), told the All Party Parliamentary Group on Aids (APPG-Aids) that her HIV unit, the Ian Charleson Centre in north London’s Royal Free Hospital, had a 15 per cent increase in patients this year and faced a budget shortfall of £1.5 million.
“There is huge pressure on us financially,” she said. “We are still seeing a lot of patients presenting with very late stage HIV and these are the people who are dying.”
A recent report by BHIVA and the Terrence Higgins Trust entitled ‘Disturbing Symptoms’ presents a picture of disorganisation and a lack of

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resources within the NHS for HIV treatment and prevention.
Dr Johnson said that only half of the new Primary Care Trusts (PCT’s) who answered the report’s questionnaire said they were implementing the government’s new sexual health and HIV strategy locally.
Two-thirds of PCTs said they needed more funding, and the same proportion of HIV clinicians said their budgets would be overspent this year.
Six out of ten doctors thought that the new NHS funding arrangements had made matters worse, with only three per cent thinking they were an improvement.
The success of HIV treatments in this country, and particularly the open access to clinics and

confidentiality is now under threat, Dr Johnson said.
“If we don’t act now, we are going to see more patients with HIV and advanced illness. This