Sat 16 Oct 2010 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The first public glimpse of the Ministry of Health's much-awaited HIV Services Review is scheduled for two weeks' time when 'stakeholders' will be shown the report. HIV service organisations have confirmed that the Ministry has arranged for them to see the report by Dr David Miller on October 28th. The Ministry has advised in the past that the report will be made public after the stakeholders had seen it. Dr Miller is a New Zealand physician who until recently was deeply involved with HIV work overseas. He was asked to review the state of HIV prevention and support services and began interviews at the start of the year. This is the first ever such review in the quarter century of the HIV epidemic in New Zealand. The report of his review was initially expected to be made public as early as late April, but it has taken months to slowly make its way through the health bureaucracy with several deadlines falling by the wayside. As well as reviewing the current situation Miller will be making recommendations for future action. In the background there have been clashes between the NZ AIDS Foundation, which until now has been the default agency for government funding, and peer support groups over who should be funded for what work. Since the report was commissioned the HIV-positive peer support organisations around the country have formed a national umbrella organisation to enable them to more effectively lobby for funding for their own support services which have until now received no government money. In addition the groups are trying to reclaim a number of HIV-related services from the NZAF such as the positive speakers bureau and the Collective Thinking publication which provides information for HIV Positive people. You can discuss this New Zealand gay community news story in the GayNZ.com Forum
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 16th October 2010 - 2:23am