Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust<\/a>, where Simon Corcos currently works, described him as a constant source of expertise, compassion and hope.<\/p>\n\u201cSimon has dedicated his career to caring for people during some of the most challenging periods in HIV care\u201d<\/p>\n
Karen Dawber<\/p>\n
The first UK cases of HIV were identified in the latter months of 1981. The first named people to die from AIDS or a related illness were John Eaddie and Terry Higgins, both in London hospitals.<\/p>\n
Beginning his nursing career at the Middlesex Hospital in London in the late 1980s, Mr Corcos joined the Charles Bell HIV ward in 1990, only a decade after these initial cases.<\/p>\n
It was a time when effective treatments for HIV did not exist and a diagnosis was widely considered a fatal prognosis, with toxic, single-drug therapies, high mortality rates and widespread public stigma.<\/p>\n
Mr Corcos said: \u201cAt that time, we cared for patients with advanced HIV\/AIDS knowing that, despite treating opportunistic infections, they would eventually die. It was an incredibly difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He later moved to the pioneering Kobler Clinic in Chelsea, where some of the first HIV medicines were being trialled.<\/p>\n
Working as part of a close multidisciplinary team, Mr Corcos helped support patients through a period marked by both clinical innovation and profound loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was really the formative part of my learning and experiencing HIV care with non-hierarchical medical and nursing teams treating symptomatic HIV patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis big team effort fostered mutual support and togetherness and hopefully countered the patients\u2019 grim reality with humanity, love, and care,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
The arrival of combination triple therapy in 1996 saw a move to his first specialist nurse post in East Surrey, with the new drugs helping to transform HIV care and changing the outlook for patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile some of the side effects were dreadful,\u201d Mr Corcos. \u201cPatients survived the illness and started living with HIV having assumed they would die.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey could now have the chance to plan for a future and it completely changed the way we treated and cared for people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
After moving to West Yorkshire in 2001, he worked as a police custody nurse, spent a year with GlaxoSmithKline as an HIV adherence nurse in Manchester and was a part-time specialist nurse in Lancaster.<\/p>\n
He subsequently joined Bradford Teaching Hospitals in 2006 as an HIV clinical nurse specialist, with advances in treatment meaning people living with HIV could expect a normal life expectancy.<\/p>\n
Over the past 20 years, he has helped care for patients registered with the HIV service across the city and district, alongside the dedicated multidisciplinary team of which he is part at St Luke\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his career, which officially ended on 31 July, Mr Corcos said the greatest privilege had been supporting people through every stage of the changing HIV story.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat an extraordinary change in my working life in HIV treatment and care from a likely death sentence to a normal healthy life expectancy, providing patients take their pills as prescribed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStable patients with undetectable HIV blood levels can now attend yearly for blood monitoring, have HIV-free babies and cannot transmit the virus to sexual partners,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIn clinic, we try to enjoy our patients\u2019 company, have some fun, but of course be serious about the issues addressing HIV in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cLastly, we advise people that acquire HIV that they haven\u2019t done anything wrong \u2013 it may seem a small point, but it is crucial for the patients\u2019 understanding of their chronic viral infection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trust chief nurse Karen Dawber said: \u201cSimon has dedicated his career to caring for people during some of the most challenging periods in HIV care.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the days when there were few treatment options to today\u2019s life-changing advances in medicine, it\u2019s clear he has been a constant source of expertise, compassion and hope for patients and families.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis career reflects not only the remarkable progress in HIV treatment but also the enduring values of the nursing profession: kindness, courage and a commitment to putting patients first,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am incredibly grateful for everything Simon has contributed over the past 36 years and wish him a long and happy retirement,\u201d added Ms Dawber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An HIV clinical nurse specialist is retiring from the NHS after a 36-year career that has mirrored the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-731604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}