HIV Transmission
Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Baroness Barker
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I am most grateful to the noble Lord for his excellent question. I absolutely agree that it is very important that we keep data for those with HIV. As part of the Government’s HIV action plan, NHS England has expanded opt-out HIV testing in accident and emergency departments in areas with high levels of HIV diagnosis and prevalence. It is a proven and effective way to identify new HIV cases, in line with the guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Baroness Barker (LD)
My Lords, as a co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group, I know that Baroness Masham supported people with HIV long before it was popular to do so, and she never, ever gave up on them.
In its first 100 days, the opt-out scheme has cost £2.2 million and has saved the NHS between £6 million and £8 million. It has taken us 10 years to get to this very cost-effective intervention. Do the Government now understand that there is a robust case for rolling this out not just to very high prevalence areas but to high prevalence areas? In very high prevalence areas, the length of stay of a newly diagnosed patient has been reduced from 29 days to 2.5 days. All round, there are savings to be made for the NHS by doing this.
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
The noble Baroness makes a very good point. We are considering the full evidence from the first year of opt-out testing, alongside the data on progress towards our ambition of ending new HIV transmissions in England by 2030, in order to decide whether to expand this programme to areas other than those with high HIV prevalence. We will also share the findings from the opt-out testing programme with local health systems to inform local decisions on expansion.