The Hepatitis C Trust’s current top policy goals include:
1. Supporting the development of a robust liver strategy
The Hepatitis C Trust campaigned extensively for a national strategy to improve services for hepatitis C and other liver diseases. We are delighted that this campaign resulted in a commitment by the Department of Health to develop a National Liver Disease strategy. Having campaigned so hard for a strategy, it is curial that current changes to the NHS don’t mean we lose the opportunity to get a meaningful strategy with clear levers to improve hepatitis C services.
The Hepatitis C Trust is working to ensure that the National Liver Disease Strategy produced is a meaningful document that will result in real improvements for hepatitis C patients across England.
2. Commissioning of hepatitis C treatment
The Hepatitis C Trust is concerned that hepatitis C patients may lose out due to the NHS changes which mean hepatitis C treatment may be planned and bought (“commissioned”) by GPs. Poor GP awareness has been the greatest barrier to effective testing and diagnosis of hepatitis C to date.
The Hepatitis C Trust is campaigning for complex cases of hepatitis C to be commissioned by the NHS Commissioning Board (the new national body of the NHS), and we want specialist hepatologists to be consulted on what constitutes a ‘complex’ case. We are also campaigning for hepatitis C clinical networks to be set up and hosted by the NHS Commissioning Board.
3. Improvement of NHS services for hepatitis C patients
The Hepatitis C Trust is campaigning for improvements including a suite of NICE quality standards for hepatitis C to inform commissioning decisions and drive up improvements in outcomes. We are also campaigning for the inclusion of hepatitis C testing in the Quality Outcomes Framework to incentivize GPs to test for hepatitis C.
4. Standardised national and local prevalence and incidence data on hepatitis C
We need better data so we understand the UK-wide picture of who has hepatitis C and how many people contract the virus each year. This information is vital to improving services for hepatitis C patients.
The Hepatitis C Trust is calling for prevalence and incidence data to be collected each year and to be standardised at a local and national level, to allow for ease of comparison.
5. Improved Prison services for hepatitis C
Prisons are a key area where hepatitis C services need to be improved. Most prisons have high numbers of hepatitis C patients, many of whom are undiagnosed, and there is vastly insufficient work going on to address this growing problem. Therefore The Hepatitis C Trust’s is asking for the following actions:
- A prevalence study of hepatitis C in prisons should be carried out as a priority so that the size of the problem is properly understood
- Hepatitis C and risk factor awareness should be available in all prisons
- Screening for HCV should be introduced in all prisons in the UK. Where testing is introduced, a reliable management pathway into which patients can be referred must be in place
- Prisoners who test positive for hepatitis C inside prison but do not begin treatment must be referred to a specialist on their release
- Each prison that contains hepatitis C patients on hepatitis C treatment should have a treatment protocol
- A medical hold to stop prisoners being transferred when on treatment so as not to disrupt any treatment course that has been initiated
- If a prisoner has to be moved, their medical records should be immediately transferred with them. The receiving prison health service should be notified in advance and ready to receive these records
- Prison and probation services must work closely with housing and health services to ensure that compliance with hepatitis C treatment is not jeopardized through resettlement
You can read a selection of our Parliamentary briefings and consultation responses here
