Fast Track Cardiff & Vale has joined with THT to ask all politicians standing in the coming Senedd elections in May 2021 to pledge six things if they are elected to Government.
If you meet anyone standing for the Senedd, you can help by asking them too.
Will you create an HIV Action Plan for Wales to meet the target of zero new HIV transmissions by 2030, developing it together with the HIV voluntary sector, leading clinicians, Public Health Wales and people living with HIV?
– Long term goals are not enough – we need a realistic plan to reach them, with practical actions to increase testing, target resources and tackle stigma
Will you support the establishment of Fast Track City collaborative networks in cities across Wales building on the success of the one in Cardiff & Vale?
– Fast Track Cities improve collaboration and increase efficiency, helping each other to end HIV transmission – we have shown that in Cardiff and elsewhere
Will you ensure continued funding of the successful national HIV and STI postal testing scheme and support a Welsh HIV Testing Week to promote HIV testing so that everyone knows their status and late diagnoses are reduced?
– The most important tool we have not to fight HIV is testing and treatment – Wales needs to invest in helping everyone to test that needs to, at home, by post or in a clinic or outreach service
Will you establish a national HIV surveillance (data) system for Wales which is unified and coherent and which will enable improved targeting of resources?
– We need high quality, openly available data on what is happening with HIV in order to target scarce resources; it’s not hard, but it isn’t currently happening
Will you ensure Health Boards meet their sexual health commitments and expand PrEP availability in sexual health clinics, GP surgeries and pharmacies across Wales?
– We need to ensure that HIV is taken seriously at every level of the Welsh NHS and that it’s made easy to prevent as well as treat it; currently PrEP is only available through specialist sexual health clinics and there is no funded HIV prevention or pro-HIV testing messaging from any health board
Will you help to lead a national anti-stigma campaign working with people with HIV and the HIV sector in Wales to challenge prejudice and spread accurate information about 21st century living with HIV?
– The biggest remaining barrier to testing and living well with HIV is stigma – in health and public services, in the media and in everyday life. It takes leadership to challenge it and explain the facts of 21st Century HIV.
Fast Track Cardiff & Vale 