England’s National Health Service (NHS) has again refused to adopt PrEP to help prevent the transmission of HIV.
NHS England had originally promised to make PrEP available but then backed down because of a bureaucratic tug of war about who would fun the roll out of the medication.
In a statement issued Tuesday, NHS England said,
In light of representations from stakeholder groups NHS England agreed to reconsider the decision. This took place on 31 May 2016 at the Specialised Services Commissioning Committee. In summary, the Committee:
–considered and accepted NHS England’s external legal advice that it does not have the legal power to commission PrEP;
–remains committed to working with other commissioners to explore the possible provision of prep. This includes working in partnership with Public Health England to run a number of early implementer test sites, backed with up to £2m investment over the next two years, to research how PrEP could be commissioned in the most clinically and cost effective way.
Matthew Hodson, CEO of GMFA UK (the gay men’s health charity), denounced NHS’ inaction.
Shocked disappointed & saddened by @NHSEngland #PrEP decision. We could #endHIV & we should. https://t.co/1vt0qKEjJy pic.twitter.com/7AO3GSAQFD
— Matthew Hodson (@Matthew_Hodson) May 31, 2016
Heading to a meeting now with other #HIV orgs to discuss response to @NHSEngland's shocking decision not to move forward with #PrEP access.
— Matthew Hodson (@Matthew_Hodson) May 31, 2016
The UK’s National AIDS Trust also blasted the NHS’ announcement, saying in a statement,
PrEP is an HIV prevention drug, proven to be effective in stopping HIV transmission in almost every case if taken properly. The decision by NHS England not even to consider commissioning PrEP came after 18 months of hard work from an NHS working group (comprising clinicians and experts from across the HIV sector) which demonstrated the need, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of PrEP.
