Decades-old HIV charity's fear over future funding

A London-wide HIV charity has said it could be forced to close if the funding crisis it is facing continues.

Positively UK, which has supported people with HIV for almost 40 years, has already closed its pan-London gay men's peer support group after being unable to secure funding for its future.

Silvia Petretti, CEO said: "The support we give is very emotional. However, most of the time we have very short-term funding. From one year to another, we never know if we're going to be around."

The government said it was "fully committed" to ending new HIV transmissions in England by 2030 and that its upcoming HIV Action Plan would focus on prevention and testing, as well as living well with HIV.

According to the National Aids Trust, 2023 was the highest year for people receiving HIV care, with 107,949 treated - an increase of 27% across the last 10 years.

Ms Petretti said: "HIV is not over. We have treatment for HIV, but we don't have a treatment for stigma yet."

"Positively UK has existed since the 1980s," she added. "We're going to be 40 next year and I am worried that our services may not be there for people in the future because of the lack of funding.

"We finished the year in the deficit and one of the most important services for us, the gay men's project, had to stop. In the past two years we applied to nine different funds and we couldn't secure any funding for the project."

Phil Dehany started attending the support group four years after he was diagnosed with HIV in 2016.

"I live by myself here in London and it can be lonely," he said. "Those opportunities to meet up with people once a month were a lifeline.

"I would go as often as I could, and it's one of those things that you don't miss until it's gone, and I wish now that I'd gone a lot more often."

"It was really sad when the project came to an end - straight away you've just lost that connection to that community."

Mr Dehany said he now uses a range of other voluntary organisations, but fears that if funding struggles continue, those who need support, including elderly people living with HIV, will suffer.

The voluntary and community sectors that offer support services for people living with HIV have faced big cuts in the last decade, the National Aids Trust said.

A report by the charity found 71% of London's HIV voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations had to either reduce staff numbers, close services, merge with other organisations or use cash reserves to cover operating costs in the last three years.

Some 40% were concerned about their ability to deliver services over the next three years.

Robbie Currie, CEO of the National Aids Trust, said: "There's a funding crisis going on within the sector across the UK.

"Statutory services have been massively reduced. It has really impacted on service provision. Services are either being cut completely or they are being reduced."

Of Positively UK, he said: "There's just nothing to replace that service."

The government recently pledged to end all new HIV diagnoses by 2030.

Ms Petretti said: "The government wants the UK to reach zero transmissions by 2030, but if people are not supported to stay well, we will not reach this goal."

In June, the Local Government Association warned that sexual health services in England were grappling with "unprecedented pressure" and urged the government to carve out a 10-year strategy and invest more to deliver "expert, timely care".

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said its 10-year health plan focused on how local government could improve services for sexual health by making better use of funding and working more closely with the NHS.

They added: "We are fully committed to ending new HIV transmissions in England by 2030 and our upcoming HIV Action Plan will focus not just on prevention and testing, but also on helping people live well with HIV."

They said more than £6m had been invested in the National HIV Prevention Programme and £27m of funding was announced in December.

Additional reporting by Josef Steen, Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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