Background Early uptake of HIV treatment among those newly diagnosed with HIV can improve individual health and prevent onward transmission. Patient-centred care is considered an important aspect in health care, the management of HIV, and can improve uptake of and adherence to HIV treatments.Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with sexual health clinicians (n, 10) and HIV support workers (n, 4) to understand how they approached HIV diagnosis delivery and care immediately thereafter.Results Our thematic analysis identified three themes: (1) centring patient needs at diagnosis; (2) assessing patients’ readiness to begin treatment; and (3) referrals to psychosocial support services. Our findings highlight centring patients was an important aspect of how participants delivered HIV diagnoses. By taking this approach, clinicians were best able to consider patient readiness to initiate treatment and referrals to social support services.Conclusions Given HIV diagnoses are increasingly occurring in generalist health services, our findings offer an important opportunity to learn from the experiences of specialist sexual health clinicians and HIV support workers.