Dr Rupert Whitaker is one of the longest surviving people with HIV in Europe, and is revolutionising the way HIV/Aids is treated.
Whitaker has been living in Manchester for five years, a move from London to a less busy and friendlier city.
He said: “There is a better quality of life here and it’s not too expensive for someone on a tight budget.”
He is currently working at the Tuke Institute, a national online think-tank which he founded in 2007, which holds the current healthcare services to account.
He explained: “We work to ensure patients get well and stay well, and to avoid the revolving door of GPs dishing out pills only for patients to return to care once their health inevitably deteriorates again.”
I asked him if he thinks the healthcare system is corrupt.
“I would say it is. What is needed is a multidisciplinary approach to treatment in which the work of psychologists is integrated with that of physicians.
“HIV is a good example of an illness which is, like most illnesses, social, mental and physical. The medication I receive doesn’t make me well. I merely function.”
Data from 2021 on HIV diagnosis in the North West revealed Manchester had the highest number of HIV cases.
“Social problems such as trauma, depression and drug use persist in such cases.
“The issue is that practitioners are not trained in mental health but they pick it up as they go along. As a result, they often misdiagnose mental health disorders.
“All of this I learned first-hand from working as an expert witness in courts for ten years, where I dealt with cases where doctors misdiagnosed. GPs are praised for their expertise but they should also be criticised for their shortcomings.”
Such criticism of healthcare resonates with the recent scandal of physician associates misdiagnosing, often leading to death.
“We have integrated care services at the moment which is a step in the right direction, but I have heard examples of social workers who say they will work with GPs over their dead body due to the amount of power the practitioners want to retain.
“Councillors too are often underqualified. Better training is needed in this area too.”
Whitaker is famous for surviving epilepsy, stroke, cancer, major depression and heart attack, and has been given around six months to live on three separate occasions. He founded the Terrence Higgins Trust in 1982 which pioneered serious treatment of HIV/AIDS, and he has even been awarded a medal of bravery. He has certainly led an eventful life, and so I ask him what he is most proud of.
“I don’t tend to have a sense of pride but rather a sense of duty, a duty to improve the world and make flaws known by holding the medical profession to account.”
Being one of the longest survivors of HIV, the advice he was willing to give was to be kind to yourself, try to achieve a good balance in life, which as an example involves drinking less.
He is currently writing his memoir, with the working title Overstaying My Welcome.
