What steps is the Welsh Government taking to ensure it meets the World Health Organisation's target to eliminate hepatitis C by 2030?
The Welsh Government recognises the need to reinvigorate the drive to eliminate hepatitis C as our services recover and adapt to meet the challenges faced by two years of responding to the pandemic.
To ensure elimination by 2030, current modelling suggests that we need to identify and successfully treat 1,000 individuals a year. However, even before the pandemic our services found it harder to identify individuals for treatment and numbers were reducing. My officials are currently working with health boards as they develop recovery plans for hepatitis C elimination and to review our approach in response to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s recommendations.
Once this review has been completed we intend to set out our expectations and priority actions for the NHS in a communication this autumn.
Over the course of this sixth Senedd term, our aim is to make real progress towards our target of achieving elimination by 2030.