HCV Action, the hepatitis C professional network coordinated by The Hepatitis C Trust, has today launched a new Hepatitis C Elimination Maintenance Strategy Group.
The new Strategy Group has been created to help ensure that plans and structures are in place so that hepatitis C elimination is maintained once the NHS England 2025 target to eliminate hepatitis C as a major public health concern is achieved.
This work will seek to build on initial recommendations recently published by HCV Action, following a roundtable which brought together around 30 senior stakeholders from relevant bodies including NHS England, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), local government public health teams, drug treatment providers, prison healthcare providers, The Hepatitis C Trust and HCV Action.
There was consensus among these participants that we must plan for maintenance now rather than later, to ensure that systems are prepared for when the NHS England Hepatitis C Elimination Programme is no longer operating, and that gains made from existing efforts and investment are not lost. The roundtable recommended that the Department of Health and Social Care should produce a Maintaining Hepatitis C Elimination Action Plan to direct the action that needs to take place in preparation for the maintenance phase of elimination. The Hepatitis C Elimination Maintenance Strategy Group will seek to gather evidence and develop the key principles required for such a plan.
The Strategy Group will meet quarterly, bringing together representatives from a variety of key stakeholder bodies. Working Groups will be established in spring 2024 to take forward key areas of focus, which will provide opportunity for a wider group of stakeholders to become involved in the workstream.
Rachel Halford, CEO of The Hepatitis C Trust and HCV Action Steering Group member, said: “A great deal of hard work and investment has gone into the hepatitis C elimination programme in England since 2019. The partnership working in support of the programme has driven exceptional innovation, particularly in reaching and supporting people often overlooked by health services. As a result, we’ve seen great progress towards the 2025 elimination target, with more than 75,000 people treated for hepatitis C.
“However, to maintain elimination once it is reached and safeguard all this work, we will need to see a coordinated approach across services. This must be driven by an overarching action plan that will give clarity to commissioners and providers alike and pull together best practice and priorities for maintenance.
“While the new Hepatitis C Elimination Maintenance Strategy Group recognise that there is still much to be done to get to elimination by 2025, we need to start planning and acting now to prepare for sustainably maintaining elimination status once it is achieved. We hope the work of this group will help drive that forward.”