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World AIDS Day government pledge to extend funding for BBV opt-out testing
“ People living with HIV can live a perfectly healthy and normal life. They are peopl e, not people living with HIV. ”
These are the thoughts of Liam Doogan, a Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) peer support worker at tHrIVE and someone who wants to help others having been diagnosed, himself, with HIV several years ago.
Liam says : “Having someone you could talk to that had already had the experience was worth its weight in gold.
"When somebody treats you like you need to be put in a bubble, you need to be protected, you start to believe it and we are acutely aware that we are living with HIV all the time we don't need to be reminded of it. ”
Thrive is a peer mentoring service for NUH offering a range of support, such as one-to-one and group sessions, quick access to a counsellor, social activities such as a mental health retreat, transport to health appointment and much more .
Liam’s advice is: "If you meet someone who is living with HIV or you know someone who lives with HIV, first of all they are still a person, they are just a person who is living with a different condition, and they wanted to be treated like every other person you know.
"If you have questions, just ask but ask in a way that you would like to be asked, don't just make assumptions."
N UH was the first acute trust in the East Midlands to introduce an opt-out A&E testing programme for blood borne viruses (BBV) .
The programme was introduced in July 2024 to identify people living with an undiagnosed BBV , such as HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, and improve access to testing while reducing stigma and ultimately saving lives.
Patients aged 16 and over who have blood taken when they attend A&E at QMC are automatically tested for HIV and Hepatitis B and C, unless they choose to opt out.
In the past 16 months since the scheme began at NUH, 64,245 tests have been carried out, identifying 23 people living with undiagnosed HIV, along with 55 Hep atitis B and 31 Hep atitis C diagnoses.
Dr Simon Deery, Sexual Health and HIV registrar at NUH, says: “I think the opt out scheme in A&E has made a hu ge difference just in Nottingham alone .
“W e’ve found a number of new diagnoses , people who would not have known they were living with HIV without this scheme.”
“And we’ve also been able to re-engage people with treatment and care who had disengaged for a number of reasons. We’ve been able to get them back into the clinic, back on treatme nt and improve their quality of life and life-expectancy.”
Posters are available in the A&E department to inform patients about the testing. If patients are not required to have a blood test during their visit, they will not be tested.
Patients can opt-out of the testing by speaking to a member of staff in the department.
Molly Hansell, Screening Coordinator & Clinical Nurse Specialist at NUH said: “The testing has been very well received by people accessing care in A&E and although you can always opt-out, very few individuals do.
“ The programme has made a significant impact in diagnosing those living with HIV, Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B in Nottingham.”
The national BBV opt out testing programme, run by NHS England, has carried out over four and a half million tests and found 1,554 new HIV diagnose s .
On World AIDS Day 2025, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting , has reiterated the government’s commitment to extend ing the scheme across the country to end all new transmissions of HIV within England by 2030. This will include an investment from April 2026 to March 2029 of £108 million to deliver opt-out HIV testing in EDs in very high and high HIV prevalence areas and a further £48 million to continue hepatitis B and C testing as part of ED opt-out programme.
If you are worried about HIV, Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C infection, you can seek free and confidential testing by contacting:
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Sexual health services on 0300 131 7010
Home testing kits for HIV can be requested at:
Home testing kits for hepatitis C can be requested at: Home - HepC (hepctest.nhs.uk)
Your GP practice can also undertake testing for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C on request.