Hepatitis C Testing and Treatment in Wirral. Increasing Treatment Places: A Practical Solution

The following report describes the practical steps taken by the local partnership in Wirral in the wake of the Department of Health’s 2002 publication of the ‘Hepatitis C Strategy for England: Getting Ahead of the Curve’, aimed at systematically increasing hepatitis C awareness and testing in Wirral in such a way as to increase demand for treatment places. In doing so, the partnership hoped to tangibly reduce local hepatitis C prevalence and the associated burden of treatment in the longer term. After several years of hard work across the treatment system, the evidence suggests that future hepatitis C treatment places will need to be doubled to meet demand. This has been achieved using relatively simple but effective interventions, with particular emphasis being given to peer-led support mechanisms to help patients not only access but sustain treatment through to completion and hopefully a positive treatment outcome.