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5 - What have clinicians learnt from working with HIV/AIDS? A medical perspective from London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2010

By
Chris G. A. Wood  and
George T. H. Ellison
Edited by
George Ellison ,
Melissa Parker  and
Catherine Campbell
Chris G. A. Wood
Affiliation:
HIV Unit, North Middlesex University Hospital, London N18 1QX, UK
George T. H. Ellison
Affiliation:
Professor of Public Health and Director of the Institute of Primary Care and Public Health, South Bank University, London
George Ellison
Affiliation:
South Bank University, London
Melissa Parker
Affiliation:
Brunel University
Catherine Campbell
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
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Summary

Introduction

This chapter sets out to provide a narrative account of learning from HIV and AIDS drawn from the perspective of a clinician (CW) who has been working with HIV/AIDS patients in London since 1990. It draws on CW's clinical experience gained during his initial specialist HIV training at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in Central London from 1990 to 1993, and on his experiences of working at the HIV Unit at the North Middlesex University Hospital (NMUH), a district general hospital in Edmonton), and in the Sexual Health Centre at St Ann's Hospital in Tottenham, both in North London. The community served by these two hospitals might best be described as ‘inner–outer London’ – a multicultural, multiethnic community with a large and diverse population comprising long-term residents and recent immigrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, living in an area with high levels of social deprivation, unemployment and welfare support. This local community happens to reflect the pattern of HIV infection globally and therefore provides an ideal setting from which to consider the impact of the disease on clinical perspectives and clinical practice, as well as some of the social and cultural dimensions of HIV/AIDS in the UK.

By reflecting on clinical practice this chapter aims to demonstrate how, despite the changing clinical context of HIV/AIDS in London, the barriers to treatment and therapy are common to many of the groups most at risk.

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Chapter
Information
Learning from HIV and AIDS , pp. 111 - 147
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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