Clive Efford MP visits QEH for World AIDS Day
We were delighted to welcome Clive Efford, Member of Parliament for Eltham, to Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) last Friday 1 December, as colleagues throughout the Trust marked this year’s World AIDS Day.
On his visit, co-organised by the NHS South London Office of Specialised Services, Mr Efford got the chance to speak to Dr Sharon Hall and some of her Emergency Department (A&E) colleagues about their experience of delivering opt-out HIV and hepatitis testing, and praise the amazing work they’ve done.
This policy, which means that everyone who visits our A&E and has bloods taken is tested for their HIV status, has led to 27 new HIV diagnoses across over 58,000 tests at QEH.
Opt-out testing has since been expanded to include hepatitis B and hepatitis C, and since then there have been 15 new hepatitis C diagnoses, and 182 new hepatitis B diagnoses made directly from said testing. You can find more information here in this digital flyer .
Following the A&E stop, Mr Efford made time to stop in on the World AIDS Day stall to meet some of our Sexual Health and LGBT+ Network colleagues and to take their special HIV quiz that tested knowledge of facts like ‘U=U’ – where HIV is undetectable, it is untransmittable.
He concluded his visit with a tour of our pathology labs where the tests are processed using state-of-the-art machinery, led informatively by Ruth Hardwick, Virology Lead – followed by a final stop at the Trafalgar Clinic to meet Consultant Physician for Sexual Health and HIV, Dr Emily Mabonga, and hear about her personal passion for this vital work to stop HIV and AIDS in its tracks.
Kate Anderson, LGT Chief of Staff who co-led the tour with our very own Dr Stephen Kegg, said: “It was fantastic to be able to show Clive Efford MP the joined-up, opt-out approach we have to this testing, as well as the hard work that goes into it all and the fantastic clinical outcomes that follow.
“As a Trust, we were early adopters of this approach, and it was a moment of pride in TeamLGT to be able to show that the fruits of our labour have led to people receiving potentially life-saving and certainly life-extending care.”
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