The health service has treated almost 2,000 people who hadn’t been diagnosed for HIV or Hepatitis over the last year thanks to a screening pilot, NHS England has announced.
The programme works by getting people to give an extra sample of blood during visits to emergency departments which is then sent off to be tested for HIV, Hepatitis B or C. If found to be positive for any of the conditions, patients are then offered specialist support alongside a treatment plan.
The initiative also managed to identify approximately 470 people who had been previously diagnosed for HIV or Hepatitis but were not receiving NHS treatment.
This comes alongside statistics that show that over two fifths (42%) of HIV diagnoses are made late in the UK, which research indicates means people are eight times more likely to die.
This is part of the reason why the NHS launched routine opt-out HIV testing in 33 hospital emergency departments last April, with £20m ringfenced for three years to support the scheme.
The expansion of the service is “essential” to reaching the government target of eliminating all new HIV cases by the end of the decade, according to Richard Angell, chief executive at the Terrence Higgins Trust.
“The results from one year of opt-out testing in areas with very high HIV prevalence are above and beyond what anyone expected and have demonstrated an incredible return on investment,” said Angell.
“In fact, the NHS data shows that if there had been funding in all hospitals where the government’s own guidance recommends opt-out testing takes place, an additional 500 people would be newly diagnosed with HIV or returned to care.”
The health service has also recently used its commercial power to negotiate deals for some of the latest HIV treatments, including a long-acting injection and the first oral drug for the disease.
The NHS remains “committed” to ensuring all interactions with patients count with this testing programme being a good example of how the health service is “taking advantage of every opportunity,” according to national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis.
