In late 1997 we received a letter from Hazel Belfield-Smith of the South West London HIV Voluntary Sector Purchasing Consortium. In this letter she advised us that future funding would come directly from our local health authority, Kingston and Richmond. No further funding from the Consortium would be possible. The Consortium has purchased services from Positively Healthy since its inception.

In previous years we have received funding for our services from North Thames Grant Scheme that was superseded by the North London & Essex Health Authorities. This group has had its budget drastically cut and it not inviting applications for the year 1998/99.

The Inner London HIV Commissioners group also purchased services from Positively Healthy but this group has now been dissolved and so funding is not possible from this source. The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames has purchased services to the value of £1,500.

CONCLUSION

It is important to state again that Positively Healthy is run by volunteers. All the usual activities carried by any organisation; administration, day-to-day book keeping, data collection, report writing, information management, organising of support groups, volunteer training, representation on Authority planning groups and media liaison are all the responsibility of volunteers. We calculate that volunteers contribute in excess of £40,000 per year of their time to Positively Healthy.

It is clear from the information provided that Positively Healthy provides local services that are both required by the population and meet their needs. Local evaluation backs up that done nationally to show the effectiveness of the services provided. Finally, at £12 per hour for the phone line, £3 per person per hour for the support groups and £3.50 per person per hour for the weekend course we firmly believe that this is excellent value for money.