O30 PrEP2U: a novel community partnership delivered HIV-PrEP service

Introduction

We have developed a community based, bi-weekly, drop-in HIV-PrEP clinic (PrEP2U) in partnership with a community organisation to improve the access to HIV-PrEP for seldom heard populations. We aimed to evaluate the service and explore the experience of PrEP2U users.

Method

An anonymous electronic survey was sent to patients via text message following their appointment at PrEP2U from August to December 2022. We collected data on demographics, previous HIV-PrEP use and how users had found out about PrEP2U and free text responses evaluating the service.

Results

Overall, 30/89 (34%) responded to our survey, 26 (87%) identified as cis-male, 1 (3%) cis female and 3 (10%) as trans/non-binary. Twenty-four (80%) described themselves as being gay/queer, 5 (17%) bisexual/pansexual and 1 (3%) as heterosexual. Twenty-six (87%) had not used HIV-PrEP previously. Respondents would recommend the clinic to friends (median of 5/5 (Interquartile range = 5–5) on a Likert scale where 5 is highly recommend) and would use the service again (5/5 (5–5), where 5 is definitely use again). Respondents found out about the service either online (9, 30%), via Terrence Higgins Trust communication (9, 30%) from friends (8, 27%) or from local sex on premises venues (3, 30%). Themes which emerged from the free-text responses from respondents included: confidentiality, accessibility, and the non-judgemental approach from the team which participants felt were important.

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first user evaluation of a community-based HIV-PrEP service in the UK. Despite HIV-PrEP being available for 2 years via the UK NHS programme, we are seeing a group of people who haven’t used HIV-PrEP previously. More work is needed to both broaden the access to HIV-PrEP using community partners to engage seldom reached populations, and to innovate to streamline person centred clinical pathways.