Online survey for London patients – please take part
24 November 2011. Related: News.
The UK-CAB is running of short anonymous online survey for people who get their HIV care at clinics in London.
The survey should only take five minutes and is important to understand whether the guidelines have been followed.
The survey is open to all HIV positive people who get their care at a London clinic.
Preliminary reports suggest that this will save £5 million within the first year.
Importantly, this money is ring-fenced for HIV care and services. It will offset the reduced NHS budget that forces clinics to run increased services (patient numbers for HIV increase each year) for the same budget as the previous year.
Information about how to report individual cases and experiences.
Background
From April 2011, HIV prescribing at London clinics has be based on new guidelines based on the outcomes of a tender process to encourage drug manufacturers to offer discounted prices in relation to the volume of their medicines used.
Crucially, the guidelines are based on offering the best and most individualised care, and not the cheapest possible treatment.
The primary outcomes were:
i) To use abacavir/3TC (Kivexa) rather than tenofovir/FTC (Truvada) for people starting treatment for the first time. This recommendation was determined by clear clinical criteria for when this option would be appropriate.
ii) To recommend atazanavir/ritonavir as the preferred boosted protease inhibitor (PI). This would be for people starting treatment when an NNRTI was not appropriate or using PIs in a second drug combination. Additionally, some people using older PIs would be encouraged to change to atazanavir if this was clinically appropriate. Atazanavir is a widely prescribed PI that has the advantages of being once-daily, having a low pill count and only requiring 100 mg booster dose of ritonavir daily.
All previously used individual drugs and combinations can still be used when these are clinically appropriate. The small percentage of people who are being asked to change to newer meds can also choose to remain on current drugs.