Posted: 28-Jul-2006 << BACK
PCTS ARE 'FAILING TO TACKLE HEPATITIS' . Bristol Post. 27 July 2006
Health chiefs in the West need to do more to tackle a chronic liver disease, a study by MPs has found. No primary care trust (PCT) in the Bristol region was found to have fully implemented an action plan for hepatitis C after a group of MPs carried out a survey of every PCT in the country.
The survey from the all-party parliamentary hepatology group asked what information health trusts had on the scale of its hepatitis C problem and what services it offered.
Bristol North PCT and Bristol South and West PCT failed to respond to the audit - which the MPs said made them "suspicious" that they were failing to do enough to help sufferers of the disease.
North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire PCTs were found not to have fully implemented an action plan to tackle the disease.
If untreated, the hepatitis C virus - most often spread through sharing needles to inject drugs - can cause cirrhosis, liver failure or liver cancer. At least 200,000 people across the country are thought to be infected, but the virus can go undetected for years because it often produces no early symptoms.
The report concluded: "We have voiced our concern in the past that the action plan had no budget, no targets and no timetable and that without them it would fail.
"This audit clearly demonstrates that the action plan is failing. This failure to address hepatitis C is not acceptable."
The report demanded a more detailed Government strategy, a single leader to oversee it and more effort to raise awareness and improving testing. It also called for specialist centres to be set up to provide diagnosis and treatment.
