AS Tameside is considered to be an area with a high prevalence of HIV, new funding will enable testing to be ramped up at the borough’s hospital.
Opt-out HIV testing will be expanded to Tameside Hospital’s A&E department in Ashton-under-Lyne, following an announcement by Health Secretary Victoria Atkins.
As a result, everyone who has a blood test in A&E will be tested for HIV unless they ask not to be.
Opt-out HIV testing is seen as helping to tackle rates of late diagnosis, with more than four in 10 people nationally still being diagnosed late. Those diagnosed in A&Es are more likely to be of Black ethnicity, women and older than those diagnosed in sexual health clinics.
The new roll-out by the government follows the success of similar testing in London, Brighton, Blackpool and Manchester, where HIV prevalence is classed as ‘very high’. Nearly 1,000 people have been found with HIV and a further 3,000 with hepatitis B and C in just 18 months.
The £20 million of new funding is expected to lead to nearly a doubling of the number of HIV tests done in England next year. This is seen as being crucial for finding the 4,400 people living with undiagnosed HIV in England, who are twice as likely to live outside of London.
Opt-out HIV testing in Tameside’s A&E will turbo-charge local efforts to find these people – something Denton MP Andrew Gwynne says he has long highlighted the need for in parliament.
“I am delighted that the government has heard my call for vital HIV testing funds for Tameside Hospital and all other hospitals with a high prevalence of HIV,” said Gwynne, who is also a Shadow Minister for Social Care.
“Opt-out HIV testing in A&Es has been remarkably successful at finding people with undiagnosed HIV in London, Brighton, Blackpool and Manchester – and it is what is needed in Tameside.
“I want to thank local healthcare professionals who have been calling for this pioneering approach to HIV testing and Terrence Higgins Trust for campaigning at a national level for the funding required. Labour is committed to ending new HIV cases in England by 2030, and I am determined that in Tameside we play our part in making that goal a reality.”
Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity, has been calling for the expansion – saying it will be essential to meet the government’s goal of ending new HIV cases by 2030.
Richard Angell, Chief Executive, commented: “It’s hugely significant that an additional two million HIV tests will be carried out in A&Es over the next year thanks to a temporary but wholesale expansion of opt-out HIV testing to 46 additional hospitals.
“With this landmark investment, opt-out HIV testing in A&Es will account for more than half of all tests in England. This major ramping up of testing is absolutely crucial to find the 4,400 people still living with undiagnosed HIV.”