A former head of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF) and an ex-head of the NZAF Trust Board have been appointed to facilitate a “national conversation” on HIV testing and test counselling in New Zealand, which could affect how organisations running HIV tests administer tests and counselling for positive people. 


This conversation is the latest action to come out of the 2010 report Review of Services For People Living With HIV in New Zealand, which looked at services being provided to people living with HIV in New Zealand.


The first result of this report was increased funding to HIV advocacy services Body Positive, Positive Women and INA, which each received $150,000 to effectively keep their doors open in early 2011. 


Now, the Ministry of Health’s National Health Board’s look into HIV testing will be run former NZAF executive director Rachael Le Mesurier (who was in the position during the time the report was written), along with Michael Stevens.


Project assistant Michael Stevens says, “Rachael won the contract from the Ministry of Health, and she’s brought me in to assist her with that. My main work has been compiling background grunt work so that everyone involved in the meetings we run are well informed about the topics of discussion.


“There’s no conflict of interest here. We get no benefit out of this – we’re just facilitating a project on behalf of the Ministry of Health. Neither Rachael nor I get any personal gain from this.


“The main focus of the project is to help great deadlines for rapid testing. By getting these different groups together, we hope to create these guidelines.”

Rachael, the project facilitator, refused to speak to express. Current NZAF executive director Shaun Robinson does not feel Rachael’s involvement poses a conflict of interest.
“Rachael is now an independent contractor who was contracted by the Ministry of Health to run this project,” says Robinson. “She is working in public health and has expertise in HIV, not to mention being highly professional. 


“I would rather have someone who knows the sector rather than someone who’s been brought in. I think it’s an advantage to have her on board.” 


The scope of the project

The National Conversation on HIV testing will involve meetings with three groups – the technical advisory group (clinicians, lab services etc), the providers advisory group (groups offering tests, such as NZAF or Body Positive), and the consumer / community advisory group (support organisations for people living with HIV). The purpose of the three groups is to inform the process from the knowledge, experience and expertise of the three aspects of HIV testing in New Zealand.


Michael says, “We hope the project will give a uniform standard of testing across a range of testing organisations.”


When asked if the standards could bring testing in line with the rapid testing / counselling model used by NZAF and Body Positive, Michael said, “We don’t know that yet; it’s too early to say. NZAF has certainly set the benchmark for rapid testing, but what goes on in a GP’s room is very different from what goes on at the NZAF. There is still going to be a place for the conventional testing GPs do and the rapid testing NZAF and Body Positive do.”


As part of the latter two of these groups, Body Positive’s Bruce Kilmister says his organisation will be heading to these group events to outline the value of positive people testing people for HIV. 


“There is significant value positive people can add to the experience by offering this test,” he says. “We can offer a clear perspective of what it’s like living with HIV. I don’t think, other than the technical side of doing the test itself, that there is any greater contribution than the information a positive person can provide a positive person.”


Although Body Positive will be taking part in the project, Bruce says he does not think the conversation will result in many changes. 


“The hardest thing will be getting GPs to provide counselling, given their very busy time schedules,” he says. “Counselling is so much more than delivering a positive HIV result. It can involve mountains of questions that span days, weeks or years.”