Shared Care: How can we do it? Findings from the BHIVA primary care project

T here are around 104,000 people living with HIV in the UK and our clinical outcomes are among the best in the world. Almost half of those accessing care are now over 45 and age-related comorbidities such as hyperlipidaemia and hypertension are common. For those whose HIV condition is well controlled, these comorbidities may have a more significant impact on morbidity and mortality than HIV itself. More than ever, we now need to focus on holistic management of healthcare needs that addresses both HIV-related and non-HIV-related health conditions without losing the successes of HIV care. We believe that this can best be achieved by collaboration between primary and specialist care to provide a person-centred, rather than disease-specific, model of care across the life course. However, there is little evidence on how best we can achieve this. To address this evidence gap, BHIVA commissioned a one-year programme of work with the overarching aim of informing commissioning and delivery of high-quality healthcare for people living with HIV between primary and specialist care across the life course. We hope that by describing contemporary care models across the UK, matching them with evidence measuring service quality, and then sharing the successful care model configurations, we will support community-based care for people living with HIV through improved integration of care across both primary and specialist services. w w w.bhiva.org @BritishHIVA ssoc