Latest news

Press releases and statements about HIV and related topics

Budget 2018 - NAT Comment

Monday, October 29, 2018

Today’s Budget 2018 announcement has included extra spending on health and social care but there has been no funding announced for the public health grant which has been cut by around £700 million for the spending period 2015/16 to 2019/20.

Deborah Gold, Chief Executive of NAT (National AIDS Trust) said: "We welcome much needed extra funding for health and social care, but it must be distributed across the health and care system to truly be effective at even sustaining our NHS as we know it, let alone improving it.

"Public Health is a vital component of the system that has been annihilated – this includes services that many people think fall within NHS funding and that are essentially NHS services. Sexual health and drugs prevention and treatment services have been reported as being at crisis point this year – recent evidence shows a consensus amongst sexual health doctors that their services are at breaking point due to cuts to the public health grant.

"Public health services have crucial role in supporting a healthier nation that ultimately costs the NHS less in the long term. These cuts are a total false economy."

For more details or further comment, contact senior press officer Charlie Alderwick: charlie.alderwick@nat.org.uk 020 7814 6727

Reporting HIV

Click here for Reporting HIV: How To Get It Right, brief guidelines for reporting on HIV.

About NAT

NAT (National AIDS Trust) is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to transforming society’s response to HIV. We provide fresh thinking, expertise and practical resources. We champion the rights of people living with HIV and campaign for change.

Shaping attitudes. Challenging injustice. Changing lives.

www.nat.org.uk

NAT Topic