Penrose Inquiry group publishes report

Following the publication of the Penrose Inquiry report on March 25th 2015, the Scottish Government established a working group to look into how to implement the Inquiry’s recommendation that the Scottish Government “takes all reasonable steps to offer an HCV test to everyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 and who has not been tested for HCV.”
The working group has now published its report, which has recommended that:
An awareness campaign be launched which is focused on finding all individuals who received blood transfusions prior to September 1991 who have not yet been tested for hepatitis C.
Efforts be undertaken to identify and offer a hepatitis C test to plasma product factor recipients who are not yet known to have been tested for hepatitis C.
The Chief Medical Officer should send a letter to all clinicians in Scotland to remind them of certain risk factors and clinical indicators for hepatitis C, and to make them aware of recent advances in hepatitis C therapy and the benefits of hepatitis C testing.
Petra Wright, Scottish Officer at The Hepatitis C Trust, said in response to the report:
“We are pleased that the group’s report has now been published and, after such a long process which has lasted so many years, we hope that the recommendations are implemented without delay. We are particularly pleased that clinicians are to be reminded of the need to test people for hepatitis C. With around 42% of people with the virus in Scotland still undiagnosed, we really need to redouble efforts to find the undiagnosed.”
The report can be read in full here.