As more people are living healthy lives with HIV, they need doctors with experience of treating the whole range of day-to-day health problems.
General practitioners (GPs) have a lot of experience with people who have long-term conditions like allergies, diabetes, kidney failure, asthma, and chronic depression.
Also HIV clinics do not have the resources to issue prescriptions for antidepressants, blood pressure drugs, flu vaccines, and so on.
So it’s important to be registered with a GP as well as an HIV clinic. Although you are not obliged to tell your GP that you have HIV, there are good medical reasons to do so. When treating you and making prescriptions, your doctor needs to know about other health issues you have, and other medicines you are taking.
Some drugs which the GP may prescribe (for example, anti-depressants, oral contraceptives and antihistamines) can interact with HIV medicines.
Because of rules of confidentiality, the HIV clinic needs your permission before it can discuss your health with your GP. But they may want to keep the GP informed about your test results, tell the GP about any drug interactions to be aware of or ask the GP to prescribe something you need.
But GPs will not get involved in HIV treatment decisions, which are left to the HIV clinic.
Just like other healthcare workers, GPs and their staff are obliged to maintain strict standards of confidentiality.
