Diagnosed 7 Years Plus Event

posted: 10/08/2010

How we think and feel about HIV, and our needs for support may change, the longer we have had HIV. This is your chance to meet up with others, share your experiences of living with a HIV diagnosis for seven or more years, and to learn from others.

If you were diagnosed over 7 years ago, this is specially for you and others in the same position. Are there different support needs as you gain more years of experience with HIV? 
 

Lynda Shentall – Director of Services is leading this event, and you can simply turn up on the evening. If you have never been to George House Trust before, please call us first - 0161 274 4499.

When, Where

Wednesday 15 September

6.00pm to 8.00pm

George House Trust, 77 Ardwick Green North, Manchester

Need more information?

For more information call Lynda on 0161 274 5652 or email her.

Snacks and travel

There will be light refreshments and the normal travel expenses.
 

HIV healthcare workers’ hopes rise

posted: 24/03/2009

An Israeli surgeon with HIV has been approved to keep working. But NHS bans on HIV+ healthcare workers are out of date and people are still unfairly losing their jobs.

HIV policy expert Chris Morley looks at the prospects for change.

Hopes are rising for UK healthcare workers living with HIV who are barred from working by rules that seem a decade out of date.

An Israeli surgeon discovered he had HIV rather late in the day - his CD4 count had already fallen to about 50. However he is now on treatment, the HIV viral load in his blood has fallen steeply to undetectable levels, and he is now back at work. And all without a big fuss - he is simply using regular surgical gloves and normal infection control procedures.

How come UK healthcare workers still face tough restrictions on what treatments they can do even when wearing surgical gloves, and why are some healthcare staff with HIV barred from continuing, or even starting their careers?

Simple precautions are enough

The Israelis have effectively issued a statement, rather like the Swiss HIV experts’ statement we reported last year. Both say that effective HIV treatment reduces HIV infectivity to close to zero. At the heart of this is the success of modern HIV treatments. Effective treatment is needed to keep the amount of HIV in the blood down to undetectable levels.

Media panics about HIV+ healthcare workers don’t find transmissions - just scapegoats and stigma

The Israeli Ministry of Health decided that the surgeon with HIV may return to carrying out invasive surgical procedures, providing that he or she maintains an undetectable viral load, follows infection control procedures and uses two layers of surgical gloves when operating.
 

But NHS healthcare workers with HIV are routinely banned from invasive surgical procedures of any kind, even very minor such as stitching wounds, under the rules for what are called “exposure-prone procedures.” These rules affect some doctors, midwives, some nurses, dentists, and some ambulance staff, among others.

The Israeli decision therefore increases the pressure on the bodies controlling UK healthcare employment to review the own guidance. These rules can only be justified if they are needed to prevent a HIV positive healthcare worker from passing on HIV through clinical care. There’s little solid evidence for this, even from the time before treatments became really effective. Healthcare workers are at more risk of infections from patients.

Positive? - Can’t Treat

In the UK the General Medical Council and the General Dental Council require HIV-positive healthcare workers to stop any exposure-prone procedures – anything that involves cutting, suturing, use of needles, or delivery of babies using forceps or suction, and almost all dental work. Now the Department of Health requires all medical students to be tested for HIV. Many UK healthcare workers have been forced to retire or change careers as a result of the rules, including several in NorthWest England.

The Israeli statement is the first official statement that HIV treatment reduces the risk of HIV transmission to such low levels that doctors, dentists, nurses and ambulance workers can continue working.
 

Reviews underway

Reviews of UK bans are underway into the guidance on healthcare workers with bloodborne viruses, and on gay men donating blood.

-------------------------
Insight editorial

NHS: End the HIV+ Workers Ban

It's time to change the rules banning healthcare workers living with HIV from doing their jobs, from doing what are called "exposure prone procedures." For a dentist this means almost everything is banned apart from x-rays and making dentures. Ambulance paramedics seem to face a postcode jobs lottery with HIV - they can work in London, but lose their jobs if in Greater Manchester.

But the reason for change now is not just because it is unfair to individuals by discriminating unreasonably, but because with current HIV treatments people become virtually uninfectious when viral load is undetectable.

Last year the Swiss national expert panel on HIV issued a statement that sexual transmission doesn't normally happen with an undetectable viral load. Now the Israelis have formally decided that a HIV positive surgeon can continue to work with normal surgical gloves and infection control procedures, as long as his viral load is undetectable. A checking exercise of his patients found no-one infected as a result of all his work over the last ten years, when he must have had a very detectable viral load. No UK patient has ever been found to have been infected with HIV through healthcare.

The Health Protection Agency's expert panel is reviewing the rules. The evidence is clear. Let HIV+ people work. End the HIV stigma and discrimination in the NHS and our medical schools which the Department of Health's guidelines cause. There is no longer any reasonable justification for the discrimination when healthcare workers have an undetectable viral load.

That makes it illegal, as well as wrong.

Read the whole current issue of Insight

What should you expect from your GP?

posted: 24/03/2009

Services Director Lynda Shentall looks at how sharing care between HIV clinics and GPs should work, as our factsheet You and Your Doctor is launched

There have been some recent changes in health care for people living with HIV. Across Greater Manchester from December last year, HIV consultants can only prescribe medication which is directly related to treating HIV infection, or the side effects of HIV medication. This is a major change for many people who became used to receiving non-HIV treatment at the HIV clinic. These included treatments for everything from high blood pressure to antidepressants. The change to HIV treatment only has been controversial for many HIV+ people.
 

You cannot be forced to disclose HIV to your GP. However you may be putting your health at risk if you are taking HIV medication. GPs and pharmacists need to know what else we are taking because all drugs can have significant interactions with other drugs. If your GP doesn’t know your HIV?status and the HIV drugs you are taking, the doctor can’t pick the best treatment and there may be significant drug interactions. In choosing whether to disclose your HIV status or not, it is important that you think about the impact such a decision will make on you, including, and arguably most importantly, your health.
 

George House Trust has produced a factsheet ‘You and Your Doctor,’ giving basic advice on what to expect from your GP, after telling the GP you are living with HIV.
 

Confidentiality at the doctors

Confidentiality at the GPs surgery is a major concern for many people living with HIV. Surgeries are local to where people live so you may know people who work there. Your GP may treat other family members. You have a right to expect the same respect and consideration from your GP surgery as you would expect from your HIV consultant. If you have concerns about confidentiality, or about any other aspect of your care, speak to your GP or ask to meet with the practice manager. GPs should be up to date and aware of HIV issues. It is fair to say that many HIV positive people have disclosed HIV status without any problem. Some people prefer to receive more of their care locally because it is more convenient. GP care is no replacement for your HIV consultant’s care. But the same can be said in reverse. If you are living with HIV you should also expect and receive the best general health care your GP can give you. Your HIV consultant is available for your GP to speak to should he / she need advice about your HIV care. However, remember that HIV consultants will not be as informed or up to date with general aspects of health care as your GP is.
 

No doctor?

If you have tried to register with a GP and not been able to, then George House Trust can help. There is a simple process to go through which will allocate you a local GP. Support and Complaints If there is any situation in which you don’t feel happy about the way you have been treated you can speak to us or your local Patient Advice and Liaison Service (often referred to as PALS). You have the right to move to another GP practice if you are unhappy with the care you are receiving.

George House Trust is here to support you with any aspect of your health care and with any of the other choices that you make. We realise that this change has had an impact on a number of people and want to support people through the changes as much as we can.
 

Need help?

Please contact the service team if you need any support connected with these changes on 0161 274 4499 or email support@ght.org.uk .
 

You can download a copy of the You and Your Doctor  factsheet here, or ask for a print copy by contacting our office 0161 274 4499, or by email

read the whole of the current issue of Insight
 

News - Confidentiality at Clinics Consultation

posted: 18/08/2006

Meeting at George House Trust on 27 September

The Department of Health wants your views on what you should be able to expect at sexual health and HIV clinics on confidentiality and disclosure.

The deadline for views is 31 October. George House Trust will hold a consultation event about this on Wednesday 27 September.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/13/77/11/04137711.pdf

For more information contact Chris 0161 274 4499 or email chris@ght.org.uk

News - Lawyer of the Week award

posted: 18/08/2006

Hermione McEwen of Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit is Tops

Hermione McEwen, senior solicitor at Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, works very closely with George House Trust in fighting for the rights of asylum seekers and other migrants affected by HIV.

We are delighted she has some public recognition for her tireless championing of the legal and human rights of migrants when she was recently featured as The Times Lawyer of the Week.