LGBT Labour condemns cuts to HIV services

LGBT Labour today condemns Tory cuts to HIV prevention work. HIV prevention services in London face a funding cut of 43%, which follows the news that there has been a 70% increase in new diagnoses of HIV infections in gay men over the past decade.

James Asser, LGBT Co-Chair comments: “Despite promising to protect NHS spending at the last General Election, David Cameron’s Tory-led government is set to decimate HIV prevention services with cuts that will set back HIV services at a time of heightened need.

“LGBT Labour is deeply concerned at these cuts, which amount to more than merely a broken promise. These cuts threaten to marginalise gay and bisexual communities across the UK without any impact assessment or consideration of how individuals concerned will be supported.”

A number of groups, including GMFA, Terrence Higgins Trust and PACE, were told last week that the NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) which help to fund their work would be slashing their budgets.

The groups are part of the Pan London HIV Prevention Programme, which is funded by PCTs and commissions a range of small organisations to tackle HIV in the capital.

They were told by Kensington and Chelsea PCT, which manages the programme, that although 21 PCTs in London wish to continue the work, only six-month contracts with reduced funding can be offered at present because PCTs are “not able to continue to commit at commensurate financial levels going forward.”