Agenda item

Agenda item

Notice of Motion: Making HIV history

 

Greater Manchester has committed to becoming an ‘HIV Fast Track City region’, a bold ambition to end new transmissions of HIV by 2025 and to eradicate stigma and discrimination by 2020. Manchester City Council has a long history of fighting against HIV/AIDS discrimination and for access to well funded services for people living with HIV/AIDS. There have been significant advances in treatment and science, meaning that if detected early HIV is no longer a death sentence but a manageable chronic condition. In Manchester we have the third highest rate of HIV in the country with over 5,000 people living with HIV in GM, and with new infections reported each year.

 

If we are serious about beating HIV/AIDs we need a comprehensive approach that allows all people to access quality life-saving and life-enhancing prevention (such as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis - PrEP), treatment, care and support services.

 

Despite this, since 2010 we have seen spending on Public Health Budgets for commissioning sexual health services decimated. Public Health Budgets have been cut by a third since 2010, with an extra £85m to be cut in 2019/20, and it is estimated that £3.2 Billion is needed each year to reverse these cuts.

 

Advances in drug treatment enable people with HIV to live long and healthy lives, whilst also significantly reducing the risk of HIV being passed on to others. There is now a drug that is clinically proven to prevent contracting HIV (PrEP) but while this drug is available on the NHS in Scotland, it is still restricted to a heavily oversubscribed ‘trial’ in England. This means that there are people at risk of contracting HIV in Manchester that could be prevented. The Terrence Higgins Trust estimate that every day the NHS delays access to PrEP, 17 people are diagnosed with HIV – and the lifetime cost to the NHS for each diagnosis of HIV is £360,000. Manchester City Council and Manchester Health Care Commissioning have repeatedly lobbied NHS England for a fully funded roll out of PrEP.

 

Therefore this Council:

 

1)    Demands that this Government reverses it’s cuts to Public Health Services, including sexual health services, and allocates funds fairly according to need

2)    Calls on the Secretary of State for Health and NHS England to take action to prevent new HIV infections by ending the trial, guaranteeing future treatment for those on the trial and fully funding and rolling out PrEP on the NHS in England;

3)    Calls on Manchester MPs, the GM Mayor and the GM Health and Social Care Partnership to push for a fully funded rollout of PrEP on the NHS.

 

Proposed by Councillor Johns, seconded by Councillor Craig and also signed by Councillors Wills, Bridges, Moore and S Murphy

 

Minutes:

Motion proposed and seconded:

 

Greater Manchester has committed to becoming an ‘HIV Fast Track City region’, a bold ambition to end new transmissions of HIV by 2025 and to eradicate stigma and discrimination by 2020. Manchester City Council has a long history of fighting against HIV/AIDS discrimination and for access to well-funded services for people living with HIV/AIDS. There have been significant advances in treatment and science, meaning that if detected early HIV is no longer a death sentence but a manageable chronic condition. In Manchester we have the third highest rate of HIV in the country with over 5,000 people living with HIV in GM, and with new infections reported each year.

 

If we are serious about beating HIV/AIDs we need a comprehensive approach that allows all people to access quality life-saving and life-enhancing prevention (such as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis - PrEP), treatment, care and support services.

 

Despite this, since 2010 we have seen spending on Public Health Budgets for commissioning sexual health services decimated. Public Health Budgets have been cut by a third since 2010, with an extra £85m to be cut in 2019/20, and it is estimated that £3.2 Billion is needed each year to reverse these cuts.

 

Advances in drug treatment enable people with HIV to live long and healthy lives, whilst also significantly reducing the risk of HIV being passed on to others. There is now a drug that is clinically proven to prevent contracting HIV (PrEP) but while this drug is available on the NHS in Scotland, it is still restricted to a heavily oversubscribed ‘trial’ in England. This means that there are people at risk of contracting HIV in Manchester that could be prevented. The Terrence Higgins Trust estimate that every day the NHS delays access to PrEP, 17 people are diagnosed with HIV – and the lifetime cost to the NHS for each diagnosis of HIV is £360,000. Manchester City Council and Manchester Health Care Commissioning have repeatedly lobbied NHS England for a fully funded roll out of PrEP.

 

Therefore, this Council:

 

1)    Demands that this Government reverses it’s cuts to Public Health Services, including sexual health services, and allocates funds fairly according to need

2)    Calls on the Secretary of State for Health and NHS England to take action to prevent new HIV infections by ending the trial, guaranteeing future treatment for those on the trial and fully funding and rolling out PrEP on the NHS in England;

3)    Calls on Manchester MPs, the GM Mayor and the GM Health and Social Care Partnership to push for a fully funded rollout of PrEP on the NHS.

 

 

Resolution

 

The motion was put to Council and voted on and the Lord Mayor declared that is was carried unanimously.

 

Decisions

 

This Council:

 

  1. Demands that this Government reverses it’s cuts to Public Health Services, including sexual health services, and allocates funds fairly according to need.

 

  1. Calls on the Secretary of State for Health and NHS England to take action to prevent new HIV infections by ending the trial, guaranteeing future treatment for those on the trial and fully funding and rolling out PrEP on the NHS in England.

 

  1. Calls on Manchester MPs, the GM Mayor and the GM Health and Social Care Partnership to push for a fully funded rollout of PrEP on the NHS.