HIV testing in Jersey (FOI)

​​Request 684939126

​Hello

Please can you answer the below questions with regards to HIV testing in Jersey. 

1. How many HIV tests were completed by the island's sexual health team (GUM clinic), on behalf of those voluntarily asking for a test, for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024?

2. What would the island's sexual health clinicians class as 'regularly testing' for HIV? (E.g. 3 months, 6 months etc)

3. How many islanders fit into this definition and are regularly taking a HIV test in Jersey?

Thanks

Response

1

Annual figures for HIV tests completed through the Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) clinic from 2020 to 2024 are detailed in the attached table:

Annual GUM HIV tests 2020 - 2024.pdf​

2 and 3

Health and Care Jersey follow the British HIV Association’s (BHIVA’s) guidelines on testing frequency, as linked below (page 13):

HIV-testing-guidelines-2020.pdf

Recommended testing frequency depends on the risk profile for HIV acquisition, as per the BHIVA guidelines. Manual review of records for all individuals tested would be required to identify how many people meet the recommended testing frequency for their individual circumstances, and involve the creation of new datasets. A Scheduled Public Authority is not required to create or manipulate data in order to respond to Freedom of Information requests. Furthermore, performing the manual review and analysis necessary to identify the information would exceed that prescribed in the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014. Therefore, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Article applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations. ​