Debates between Lord Black of Brentwood and Baroness Merron during the 2024 Parliament

Wed 11th Sep 2024

HIV Care: Access

Debate between Lord Black of Brentwood and Baroness Merron
Wednesday 11th September 2024

(3 months, 2 weeks ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Black of Brentwood Portrait Lord Black of Brentwood (Con)
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My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and declare my interest as a patron of the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Baroness Merron Portrait The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)
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My Lords, in 2022 England exceeded the joint United Nations programme on HIV and AIDS targets, with 98% of people diagnosed with HIV receiving treatment. The UK Health Security Agency estimates that between 6% and 15% of people living with diagnosed HIV in England did not access HIV care that year. Re-engaging people into HIV care is a priority for the current HIV plan for England and for the new plan that is in development.

Lord Black of Brentwood Portrait Lord Black of Brentwood (Con)
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My Lords, we know from the opt-out testing programme in A&Es introduced by the last Government that up to 15,000 people in England who are aware that they have HIV are not accessing life-saving care, with devastating personal consequences for them and profound ramifications for public health, because if you are not on medication, you can pass on the virus. Is the Minister aware of the case of a 45 year-old man, out of care for several years, who went to hospital with a headache and was found to have a CD4 count of just four. He was diagnosed with cryptococcal meningitis, an AIDS-related illness. He went blind and died three months later, one of a growing number of tragic preventable deaths. Can the Minister ensure that we get an HIV action plan as soon as possible and that this issue—with funding, if necessary—will be a key part of it, to ensure that we get those lost to care back into it?

Baroness Merron Portrait Baroness Merron (Lab)
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My Lords, Ministers have already commissioned officials for advice on how to progress the development of a new HIV action plan. On the very tragic case that the noble Lord refers to, he will be aware that since April 2022, NHS England has funded emergency departments in London, and in areas of very high diagnosed HIV prevalence, to provide routine blood-borne virus testing for HIV as well as for hepatitis B and hepatitis C in everyone aged over 16. That attention at the point of contact is crucial in this area.