Select pharmacies to offer hepatitis B and C testing in trial scheme
Click Here for list of participating pharmacies
Between 250,000-466,000 people are thought to be living with hepatitis C alone in the UK today, but only around 100,000 have actually been diagnosed as many are simply unaware they have been infected.
Both hepatitis B and C do not have symptoms for many years but, if left untreated, both can lead to liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and eventually death, so catching these diseases as early as possible is crucial to boosting treatment outcomes and also to preventing their further spread.
Under a new scheme carried out by the Hepatitis C Trust in partnership with five Primary Care Trusts (City & Hackney, Nottingham, Sandwell, Tameside & Glossop, Isle of Wight), 19 pharmacies across the nation will open their doors to viral hepatitis testing for three months starting on World Hepatitis Day (today).
“Too many people are developing life-threatening liver disease because they are being diagnosed too late,” said Charles Gore, Chief Executive of The Hepatitis C Trust, explaining the rationale for the scheme, and he stressed that free, easily accessible hepatitis testing could help to save “countless lives”.
Although the scheme is only set to run for a three-month period, the Hepatitis C Trust says it hopes to make pharmacy testing available to everyone in the long term, in order to address the urgent need to improve on the low diagnosis rates for these life-threatening diseases and thereby help patients get treatment faster.
Hepatitis screening pilot launched in five PCTs
Jennifer Richardson - Countless lives could be saved by a ground-breaking hepatitis B and C screening service in community pharmacies, a leading charity has said.
A pilot project developed by The Hepatitis C Trust will see pharmacies in five PCTs across England offering free, on-demand dry blood spot testing for the potentially fatal viruses.
Pharmacists in 19 participating stores have been trained to carry out the tests and give patients lab results. If positive, patients will be referred to their GPs for treatment.
The Hepatitis C Trust hopes the confidential yet accessible community pharmacy setting will persuade hundreds of thousands of potentially undiagnosed hepatitis sufferers in England to come forward for testing. The aim is for the service to eventually be delivered in more pharmacies in all PCTs.
The Hepatitis C Trust’s parliamentary and policy advisor Jane Allen told C+D: “We’re hoping it’s a model that will improve diagnosis rates and can be rolled out nationally.”
The service will launch on World Hepatitis Day (May 19), and run for three months. In that time, each participating pharmacy will be aiming to carry out 100 tests.
The tests are being funded by the individual PCTs involved (City & Hackney, Nottingham, Sandwell, Tameside & Glossop and Isle of Wight) and remuneration is negotiated locally, with pharmacies being paid between £10 and £15 per test after receiving consumables free of charge. The Hepatitis C Trust has provided the training.
The project was inspired by The Body Shop founder and hepatitis C sufferer Dame Anita Roddick.
