Background/introduction/Aims To establish whether point of care testing is being carried out in the appropriate populations. We endeavoured to see if our rapid HIV testing met the guideline specificity of 99.4%

Methods We carried out a retrospective analysis of 674 patients who received point of care tests (POCTs) after attending the sexual health clinic at the Royal Liverpool Hospital between October 2014 and May 2015. We reviewed the point of care tests based upon the indication, age and sex of the patient. The outcome measures included whether the test was reactive or not and the final result of the laboratory HIV test. Indications were defined by individual staff members logging the information and if multiple indications were given, the aspect deemed to be higher risk was used

Results Of the 674 patients 499 were female and 175 were male. The four most common indications were for testing were MSM (36%), Worried/Anxious (15%), PEP (11.5%) and HIV positive partner (9%). 31 tests (4.8%) were reactive and 23 tests (3.4%) produced a corresponding positive final laboratory result. This equated to a specificity of 98.77%. Positivity of indications varied remarkably-MSM, 3.7% versus Worried,0%.

Discussion/conclusion The study developed our understanding of the uptake of POCTs. A larger sample could have increased the specificity to the national guidance. The variability in documentation made it difficult to categorise risk in different indications. For example, indications of “high risk” and “worried” are vague and potentially misleading.