It wasn’t until 1998 that I really needed the NHS. I began to get really ill, stayed in a hospital, but no-one knew what was wrong with me.
It couldn’t be HIV positive because I had tested negative the previous year. I was kept in a private room at my local hospital and encouraged to have another HIV test, which ended up being positive.
The NHS saved my life
Like many people who have to deal with a life-changing diagnosis, it was more upsetting for those around me. As for me, I knew I had to take advantage of all the opportunities I had to look after my health.
Combination therapy was available and I was very fortunate that the meds I was given worked pretty much straight away. I cannot fault the treatment I have received and over the last 20 years for me as an HIV positive patient, they really have been brilliant.
Receiving the diagnosis did make me change my career, however. When I was well enough to work, I saw an advert for a gay men’s sexual health outreach worker in Manchester. I immediately thought: ‘Hey, I can do that, at least I knew the subject!’
In 2012 the LGBT Foundation (then the Lesbian & Gay Foundation) launched Pride in Practice, a new patient standard for achieving excellence in healthcare through working with GP services. | Photo: supplied
LGBTI inclusion in the NHS
Despite many challenges, there are people in the NHS who really want to support their LGBT patients. The problem is that too often they don’t know how to do this.
