Tom Pursglove – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Pursglove on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his Department’s publication, Living Well for Longer: One year on, published in March 2015, when he plans to publish a hepatitis C Improvement Framework.

Jane Ellison

A date for publication of the hepatitis C Improvement Framework has not yet been set. Public Health England continues working with NHS England and Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) to establish a process of monitoring hepatitis C treatment access and uptake.

Following their establishment in August 2015, ODNs will need to continue to be developed as a mechanism for ensuring equitable access to expert multidisciplinary team care and treatment for hepatitis C. ODNs are working to develop their plans, based on the published service specification and with the support of local specialised commissioning teams and regional Clinical Directors of specialised commissioning. Work is also underway to establish by February 2016 a national network of ODN clinical leads to share good practice. In addition, the draft hepatitis C improvement framework includes a numbers of areas pertinent to ODN operation and will therefore support further development of their role.