Today the government has launched its new 10 year health plan. It includes a restatement of our shared goal of ending new HIV cases by 2030:
'We will end new HIV transmissions in England by 2030. Later this year, we will publish a new HIV action plan to continue our progress towards this ambition. This will include efforts to improve testing, tackle inequalities in access to HIV prevention interventions, and better identify the need for and initiation of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis particularly among people from ethnic minority groups such as Black African and Black Caribbean communities.'
With very few condition-specific commitments in the plan, this re-stating of Labour's manifesto commitment puts ending new HIV firmly at the top of the government's agenda on health.
The plan focuses on three shifts for the health service: analogue to digital, sickness to prevention and hospital to community. Each will be crucial to ending new HIV cases.
On treatment to prevention: we've been clear, HIV prevention must be the role of the whole service. Opt-out HIV and hepatitis testing in A&Es has shown what's possible when this happens. Now it's time to get testing right everywhere - in GPs, reproductive health services, termination of pregnancy services, prisons and online. Everywhere you test for HIV, PrEP should be in the pathway.
On analogue to digital: the governments ambition for the NHS App to be the new front door of the NHS. Putting HIV testing and PrEP access on the app would be game-changing for health inequalities in HIV.
On hospital to community: the voluntary sector is key to this - as the plan makes clear. It's crucial we find everyone living with diagnosed HIV who isn't currently accessing treatment and make sure they get the care they need. They, by definition, are not in clinic but out in the community.
Richard Angell OBE, Chief Executive, Terrence Higgins Trust says:
'We're ready and looking forward to working with the government to turn our shared ambition to end new HIV cases into reality.
'The 10 Year Health Plan gives us the framework for success – the system needs to embrace not fight the three shifts. If they do, together we can achieve incredible results.
'The proof of this pudding will be in the HIV Action Plan. In light of three shifts, and ‘patient is king’ mantra, we are excited about what this plan will entail.'
