We are calling on government to ensure that adequate funding is in place to support future nationwide expansion of PrEP, accompanied by a firm guarantee that any unforeseen costs do not fall on already under pressure local authorities.
Responding to an announcement by NHS England about funding for the expansion of the PrEP Impact Trial to 26,000 participants by 2020, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“While we are pleased that the successful trial of PrEP is to be expanded in line with existing trial funding arrangements, this will depend on the results of further work to assess the capacity and affordability of sexual health clinics and local authorities to take on additional places. There remains real concerns about the extra costs to already overstretched sexual health clinics provided by councils.
"We are calling on government to ensure that adequate funding is in place to support future nationwide expansion of PrEP, accompanied by a firm guarantee that any unforeseen costs do not fall on already under pressure local authorities.
“The results of the trial, which will be the largest single study of its type in the world, will help inform the potential rolling out of PrEP nationwide to help defeat the spread of HIV. It is crucial that by the end of this trial next year, a clear process for routinely commissioning and funding PrEP provision in local authority commissioned sexual health services is agreed.
“This needs to be further supported by reversing the £700 million of real terms public health cuts planned to 2020 as a matter of urgency, to build upon existing prevention measures while also ensuring that other sexual health services are not stretched too thinly to accommodate increasing demand.
“We now need an urgent conversation with government on how this next stage will be funded.”