HIV treatment and care

In some areas at present PCTs collaborate on providing your HIV services, such as in London with the pan-London HIV Consortium. From April 2013, HIV services will be commissioned by the national NHS Commissioning Board, but with the planning focus still at a local level. As part of the transition to the NHS Commissioning Board, the Department of Health has set up a Clinical Advisory Group to consider the most appropriate level at which services, including HIV, should be commissioned.

There can be advantages to commissioning HIV services in this way and NHS London has been successful in negotiating a better price for some types of HIV medication by virtue of its size. National commissioning could also potentially drive up standards and the consistency of your care with the development of specialised centres of excellence. It also avoids handing commissioning to GPs who can have little experience of dealing with HIV.

However, national commissioning does not address the need for greater GP and other primary care involvement in HIV care, especially now that so many people are in a very stable condition with effective HIV treatment. Most other long term conditions like diabetes, asthma and coronary heart disease will be funded by the CCGs and so will have input from GPs and other primary care practitioners.

Terrence Higgins Trust will continue to work with politicians, civil servants and key decision makers in the NHS to ensure that the views of people living with HIV are prioritised in the development of commissioning and service structures.

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NHS Commissioning Board