A SURGERY in Cannington is offering a free walk-in test for HIV this Friday (November 28).

The Cannington Surgery in Mill Lane will hold drop-in testing day between 12.30pm and 6pm as part of the National HIV Testing Week.

Somerset County Council Public Health are urging people who may be “at risk” of HIV to walk in and have a test.

The tests are free and confidential and carried out by specialist HIV staff from Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic.

There is no need to book an appointment and results will be given in twenty minutes.

Cllr Christine Lawrence, chairman of Somerset Health and Wellbeing Board, told the Mercury: “This is a pilot project in Somerset intended to make it much easier for people who may be at risk to have a test.

“Although Somerset doesn’t have high numbers of people who live with HIV we are concerned with the number of adults who are being diagnosed at a late stage of the infection.

“Early detection and treatment, as with many conditions, gives a much better outcome.

“Modern treatments are highly effective allowing people nowadays to live with HIV.

It is so much better to get tested rather than keep putting it off.”