NHS Tayside won Best treatment pathway initiative at QiC Hepatitis C
Healthcare professionals working to improve care for hepatitis C patients in the UK were honoured last week at the first Quality in Care (QiC) Hepatitis C awards.
Held September 16 at the British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL) conference in Gateshead QiC Hepatitis C celebrated the work of eight projects working to improve hepatitis C prevention, diagnosis & testing, treatment pathways and patient support in the UK.
Winners included NHS Tayside for its work providing access to hepatitis C treatment for people who inject drugs and Dundee CHP for its work to improve outcomes for patients with blood borne virus in Dundee.
Dundee CHP won Best diagnosis & testing programme at QiC Hepatitis C 2014
Comments from judges on the NHS Tayside project included: “It is a cost-effective initiative with a patient-centred approach providing persuasive evidence that people who inject drugs can have similar or better treatment outcomes than people who do not inject drugs – much needed in the face of widespread resistance to treating this group of patients.”
Of the Dundee CHP project, judges said: “Raising awareness with GPs is vital and this project is delivering – impressive as GPs can so often be resistant.”
High commendations went to Dorset Viral Hepatitis Service and the Addaction programme in Cornwall.
Case studies of the projects will be presented on QiC Connect as part of the programme’s efforts to share good practice in hepatitis C across the country.
The QiC Hepatitis C programme is funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead and supported by BASL, British Liver Trust, The Hepatitis C Trust and Liver4Life.
Quality in Care is a series of programmes aimed at recognising quality and productivity in key therapy areas. Other QiC programmes include QiC Oncology, QiC Diabetes and QiC Anticoagulation.