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Written question asked by Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 3 December 2015, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 17 December 2015. It was answered by Lord Prior of Brampton (Conservative) on Tuesday, 15 December 2015 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Prisoners: Hepatitis

Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what incentives and performance targets exist to encourage HM Prison Service to improve rates of testing for hepatitis C among prisoners.

Answer

Improving the proactive detection, surveillance and management of infectious diseases in prisons is a shared priority for the National Offender Management Service, NHS England and Public Health England, as described in the Second National Partnership Agreement published earlier this year. A copy is attached.

Included within this work programme is implementation of the blood-borne virus (BBV) opt-out testing programme for people in prisons, which includes testing for Hepatitis C virus infection as well as Hepatitis B virus and HIV.

The ambition is to have BBV opt-out testing in all adult prisons in England by end of the financial year 2016-17.

While there are currently no financial incentives or direct performance targets, performance in this activity is measured by NHS England through the collection of data via the Health & Justice Indicators of Performance. The data are used by NHS England commissioners to performance manage healthcare providers in prisons.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL4229
Session
2015-16
Attachment
National Partnership Agreement
Subjects
Hepatitis Prisoners Screening
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk