Case study

The Hepatitis C Coalition

Challenge:

To unite the Hepatitis C (HCV) community, bringing together industry, NHS England, MPs and patients, to realise the goal of eliminating the disease across England by 2025.

To meet the wider goal of driving HCV elimination, we identified the importance of greater focus of testing and treatment within the prison and justice system. Despite the time and financial pressures facing the justice system, we embarked on a project to improve HCV outcomes and processes throughout UK prisons.

We worked with Public Health England to maximise the uptake of opt-out testing; the probation service to enable prisoners to keep their medicines with them on release; and with staff throughout the justice sector to raise awareness of the need for more patients to be tested and treated.

Co-hosted a high-profile roundtable on HCV in prisons with NHSE – attended by PHE, DHSC and MoJ and others
Publication of report on HCV in prisons with recommendations circulated to key political and policy decision-makers
Op-eds published in Inside Time and Gatelodge Magazine and secured a stand at the Prison Governors Association (PGA) conference
Bulletin in the PGA circular, read by over 95% of prison governors and senior managers in UK prisons
Two-page flyer for prison keyworkers to be distributed across the prison estate by the PGA

Our campaign delivered tangible policy change, ensuring that HCV is prioritised within the prisons and justice system, driving momentum behind the wider goal of eliminating the disease by 2025.

The inclusion of recommendations around blood borne viruses and the need for continuity of care in the National Probation Service Health and Social Care Strategy
Micro elimination has now been achieved in 10 prisons – nearly 10% of the 112 prisons in England and NHSE considers the prison estate to be one of the biggest successes so far in the HCV Elimination Programme
The probation service has now been identified by the NHSE HCV Elimination Programme team as a key area for ongoing engagement and improvement
We created relationships with around 30 new prison governors across a broad range of geographical areas, securing their regular involvement in the Coalition

Our work was highly commended at the Communiqué Awards in 2020. The judges said: “This was a comprehensive and well thought through campaign, tackling a very big challenge – increasing testing and treatment of HCV in prisons. It achieved engagement at the highest levels, cutting through to galvanise a wide range of disparate groups. More than that, it showed convincing evidence that the needle is starting to shift.”