Question reference: S6W-26153
- Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 13 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 26 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to encourage people who have been diagnosed with HIV but who are no longer considered as attending specialist care to re-engage with these services, in light of reports that there are an estimated 961 such people in Scotland.
Answer
he importance of retaining individuals living with HIV in treatment and care is recognised in the UNAIDS/WHO targets and the Scottish HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal as one of the five pillars of interventions (entry into and retention in specialist HIV care). Specialist HIV services and HIV third sector organisations will work together to optimise the updating of information with regards to the movement or transfer of individuals to facilitate engagement with services.
This work will be supported by Public Health Scotland through the provision of NHS board level data on people diagnosed with HIV but not attending specialist treatment and care services for whom, through linkage of data to migration, death, hospitalisation, prescription and vaccination datasets, there is evidence that they remain resident in Scotland.