SERVICE as USUAL

There are many other NHS Trusts too that can provide more expert care. Mental Health NHS Partnership Trusts and Acute NHS Trusts work closely with PCTs and will also consult with

patients and the public.
Many of these new opportunities have been created to assist people living with HIV to make their opinions known and to encourage their vital input in the discussion of how services can be improved.
So are these plans all ‘Blairite lip-service’ or are they having any real effect?

“The government’s new Patient and Public Involvement Initiative will provide a real opportunity for people living with HIV and affected communities to exert greater influence over the NHS,” says Joseph O’Reilly, Deputy Chief Executive of the National Aids Trust.
“Given the devolution of decision-making about the provision of health services, including HIV prevention, treatment and care to PCTs, these new structures are going to be an important way for positive people and HIV organisations to monitor the level and quality of services,” he added.
But Bernard Forbes, the UKC’s chair warns: “The NHS is so busy trying to sort out what they themselves should be doing, there hasn’t been much opportunity in many places to invest in proper user-led

Positive minorities need “seamless services”

involvement programmes. We must remember that it’s the patients who are the experts on living with their condition. That makes us the fount of all knowledge about how we should be treated by the NHS.”
When good practice works
One shining example of how the new proposals can be implemented properly can be found at the Greenway Centre in Newham, east London. Here, an integrated health service has been provided, for many months, to families who are affected by HIV.
The new group, consisting of around 500 patients, has generated much enthusiasm. There was a lot of patient involvement in deciding how the new service should proceed. Patients met regularly in open meetings; they run an e-discussion group, and leaflets were produced.

The number of pregnant women who are HIV positive in east London is among the highest in Europe and a large proportion of the families are from sub-Saharan Africa; of these, the majority