Make An Equality Stand

posted: 14/04/2011

People who want to protect the rights of people living with HIV and stand up for Equality should post a comment on the government’s website called the RedTapeChallenge. We have no idea why, but the Cameron government seems to think Equality law and Human Rights are just bureaucratic red tape regulations that should be swept away. They ask people to
 

"Tell us what you think should happen to this Act and why, being specific where possible:
• Should they be scrapped altogether?
• Can they be merged with existing regulations?
• Can we simplify them – or reduce the bureaucracy associated with them?
• Have you got any ideas to make these regulations better?
• Do you think they should be left as they are?"

We encourage people to stand up for HIV, Human Rights and Equality for all. This law provides vital protection for people with HIV among many other groups.

Some excellent responses on the RedTapeChallenge website make the point that the Equality Act is a very recent law (2010) passed by Parliament and not regulations at all.
 

There are also many uninformed and hostile calls for the whole law to be scrapped.

People concerned about equality and HIV need to make their voices heard.

Please – now
Go to the website and write a short note with your views on the Equality Act.

Some points to make

• the Equality Act is primary legislation, not regulations;
• say how wrong it is to pretend this is about regulations when the entire Equality Act 2010 appears to have been put up for grabs;
• ask people to say positive things about the Equality Act – it’s for everyone, whether women or men, whatever people’s race, beliefs or faith, sexuality, age, marriage or civil partnership, disability (which includes HIV and cancer), pregnancy and maternity, or gender reassignment. The Equality Act helps make the country more civilised, people respect our differences and organisations to provide services without discriminating.

Message the link / use Facebook / Twitter and other networks to people to add their voices
 

Making a quick comment only takes a moment

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Human Rights Court - HIV discrimination

posted: 18/03/2011

The European Court of Human Rights has just made a helpful and important ruling about HIV discrimination. The court said discrimination against people with HIV is so widespread that it means people with HIV are a “vulnerable group with a history of prejudice and stigmatisation”.

This ruling makes it easier for other people to make HIV discrimination claims on human rights grounds. This means people with HIV will automatically be treated in future human rights cases as 'vulnerable'. This means one less thing to prove when making a human rights claim in UK courts and tribunals.

With cuts to public services for people with HIV, including access to free legal aid, more people with HIV in the UK are likely to need to use the Human Rights Act. This ruling will help.

The European Court case was against Russia. Russia refused a residence permit to a man from Uzbekistan (who is married to a Russian woman with whom he has a child) simply because he is HIV-positive. The Court said this plainly breached their human right to family life. If he hadn’t had HIV he would have been given the residence permit to live with his wife and child in Russia.
 

The court said, "The mere presence of a HIV-positive individual in a country is not in itself a threat to public health."
 

Human Right to Family Life and non-discrimination

Russia was found to have broken Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to family life, and Article 14, which bans discrimination.
 

Last October, the European Human Rights Court ruled against Russia because of Moscow's bans of gay pride events. Then the court found that Russia was breaking the European Convention guarantees of freedom of assembly and association, the right to an effective remedy and prohibition of discrimination.

Source

 
More details on this New York law professor’s blog

European Court of Human Rights

Guide to HIV Healthcare Confidentiality

posted: 15/12/2010

A new guide for people living with HIV explains your rights to confidentiality in healthcare and what you can expect. The guide, Personal information and the NHS, goes through common concerns people living with HIV have about how the NHS treats the privacy of information about HIV status.

It explains how personal information will be handled, and gives practical advice about what to do if people have any concerns.

Know the facts and take action

This guide helps people with HIV understand confidentiality and privacy rights. It encourages people to ask questions and make concerns known, which NAT hopes will help improve things for everyone. If a person with HIV feels that their personal information has been mishandled, armed with the facts in this guide, they can take action.

Confidentiality is protected in the NHS in the following ways:

• NHS staff should not talk about someone to anyone else either inside or outside the NHS without the patient’s consent; this includes talking to family members and friends of the patient
• NHS staff should not leave names visible anywhere. They should therefore cover up names on paper files or close computer screens and electronic medical records
• All paper records should be kept in a secure place and all computerised records should have electronic protection, such as secure logins and passwords.

Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of NAT (National AIDS Trust), told us:

‘Many people living with HIV have experienced concerns relating to confidentiality of their status and in healthcare this is especially important. In order to receive the best healthcare, sometimes this does mean sharing your personal information but people living with HIV should be able to do that and feel confident that their information will only be shared appropriately and with their consent. NAT has developed this guide in order to set out the basic principles of confidentiality within the NHS, as it can be a confusing area and many people do not fully understand what the rules – or their rights – are.’

guide: Personal information and the NHS is here
 

NAT's policy report Confidentiality in healthcare for people living with HIV provides useful background 

European Parliament Votes for HIV

posted: 09/07/2010

In the run up to the largest and most prestigious International AIDS Conference in Vienna (which begins later this month), HIV campaigners across Europe have won a big a vote in the European Parliament for a human rights based approach to HIV. There is now a list of 25 things that should happen next according to the European Parliament’s resolution.
The vote was 400 for and 166 against.
 

After a list of reasons, on page four the 25 actions that the European Parliament and its institutions should now take begins.  It's a shopping list of actions to do the best that is possible to deal with the HIV epidemic for people within Europe and the rest of the world. 

What they voted for

It calls for a human rights approach to dealing with HIV and lists a whole range of things to make this happen - such as decriminalising HIV transmission, and providing healthcare to all, because this is now part of the universal declaration of human rights.

Here is the full Resolution which has just been voted through
You can find the whole debate here – video and printed versions
 

‘Health Tourism’ Mischief

posted: 08/06/2010

Sunday Times deputy editor Isabel Oakeshott has written an ignorant and mischief-making scare story about people from abroad using NHS money. People with HIV were included among those the NHS ‘counter-fraud unit’ listed as responsible.
 

The story calls it health tourism. The Department of Health has published no evidence that people with HIV come here as tourists deliberately to get HIV treatment. The only evidence there is (a snapshot survey by George House Trust and Terrence Higgins Trust) shows people do not know they have HIV when they travel here (to seek asylum, to start a university course, or to work, or visit family …. ).
 

Legal rights ignored
Most people from abroad who do have HIV treatment have every legal right to this. The few who are chargeable under the legal rules usually only find out they have HIV months or years after arrival, and their HIV diagnosis is always a big shock.

The NHS charging rules worsen public health in the UK by discouraging people from taking (always free) HIV tests. Untested and untreated people with HIV are likely to be much more infectious and lead to more HIV infections in the UK. Testing and HIV treatment can make people with HIV almost uninfectious, and that can save the NHS a lot more money than not treating everyone who needs this. HIV is the only sexually transmitted infection that can be left untreated because of these charging rules.
 

The Times report says that in eight-months last year, hospitals reported £24m in “bad debts”, 'most linked to patients from abroad'. The article suggests hospitals recover some of the cash later, but not much. The report says ‘According to the NHS’s counter-fraud unit, health tourism has a particularly heavy impact on maternity services, HIV care and cancer and heart units’.
 

Wrong about pregnant women, cancer, serious heart disease, HIV rights
The newspaper report is mischievous and malicious. The law and official guidance to NHS hospitals tells hospitals they must provide ‘immediately necessary’ or ‘urgent’ treatment.

Who would or could refuse a pregnant woman emergency care, or someone with life-threatening heart conditions, cancer, HIV?
 

Accident and Emergency – wrong again
It claims, without quoting any evidence, that “thousands of foreigners have been diagnosed in their own countries who cannot afford treatment there simply turn up at accident and emergency units in British hospitals and demand to be seen”.

Again this completely ignores the law and official NHS guidance – anyone needing accident and emergency care is always entitled to it without any charge. We get and would expect this if we are abroad and need emergency care.
“6.7 Some NHS services provided in NHS trusts are free to everyone regardless of the status of the patient. This Regulation says what these services are. The current list includes: a. treatment given in an accident and emergency department or casualty department......”
 

Doctors opposed
It correctly reports that most doctors dislike the charging system because medical ethics and the Hippocratic oath mean it is unethical to turn away patients who need urgent medical help.
 

Blame the Irish and Welsh – wrong
It also falsely blames people from the Irish Republic. Irish Citizens have always had the right to come and go freely and live here and use UK services. Brits can do the same in Ireland.

It seeks to create divisions within the UK by blaming people living in Wales for using NHS services in England, although the Welsh pay UK taxes just like everyone else. The Welsh are not foreign or migrants.
 

The Department of Health is already reviewing its policy on foreign patients.
 

Times article