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Opportunities for earlier diagnosis of HIV in general practice
  1. Jienchi Dorward1,
  2. Arun Chinnaraj2,
  3. Nigel Garrett3,
  4. Vanessa Apea3,
  5. Werner Leber2
  1. 1Tower Hamlets GP Training Scheme, London Deanery, London, UK
  2. 2Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Marys, University of London, London, UK
  3. 3Ambrose King Centre, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jienchi Dorward, Bethesda Hospital, P/Bag X602, Ubombo 3970, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; jienchi.dorward{at}nhs.net

https://doi.org/10.1136/sextrans-2012-050712

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    Studies from HIV specialist clinics suggest that undiagnosed HIV-positive patients often present in general practice, where opportunities for diagnosis are missed.1–3 So, what can we learn from analysing general practice records of known HIV-positive patients?

    We performed a service evaluation in December 2011 of all known HIV-positive patients aged ≥15 registered at four general practices in Tower Hamlets, London (UK), with a combined 25 533 patients aged 15–59. Patients were identified using modified code searches (see online supplementary appendix 1) on the EMIS computer system (Egton Medical Information Systems, UK) as described elsewhere.4 Practice staff used a standardised template to analyse face-to-face general practitioner (GP) consultations in the …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors JD, NG, VA and WL designed the study. JD, AC and WL collected data. JD, VA and WL analysed the data. All authors contributed to the preparation of the manuscript.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Ethics approval This was a service evaluation using case notes review, so ethics approval was not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

    • ▸ Additional supplementary files are published online only. To view these files please visit the journal online (http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/sextrans-2012-050712).