Stockton Recovery Service achieves micro-elimination of hepatitis C

What is micro-elimination?

Hepatitis C is one of the most common blood-borne viruses in the UK. It’s especially common among people who inject drugs, so it’s important to make sure that people who use our services can access testing and treatment.

When we say an area has micro-eliminated hepatitis C, that means it has reached these targets:

• 100% of people using the service have been offered a hepatitis C test.
• 100% of those with a history of injecting have been tested at any time.
• 90% of those people at risk have been tested in the last 12 months.
• 90% of people who were diagnosed with hepatitis C have started treatment.

Thanks to a lot of hard work from the whole team, Stockton has been able to hit these targets.

"Improving the health and wellbeing of the people we work with is one of our key priorities, helping to build a foundation upon which people can start to make positive and long term changes in their lives.

The team's commitment to raising awareness of hepatitis C, testing those who have been at risk and supporting people to access treatment has been incredible to be part of. They’ve gone over and above to make a difference and we’re so pleased that many people we work with have a healthier outlook for the future because of it"- Jenny Thompson, Change Grow Live Service Manager

How did we achieve it?

Achieving micro elimination wasn’t easy; we had to adapt our approach and do a lot to raise awareness.

People living with hepatitis C don’t always have symptoms until it’s too late, or symptoms may be attributed to something else. Convincing people that they would benefit from a test was at times a challenge.

The team had to get creative, holding awareness events, creating videos, offering incentives and doing lots of outreach to increase the number of people being tested. Working with Infectious Diseases Nurse Consultant Jane Knowles and team, from James Cook University Hospital (South Tees NHS Trust), meant that we could offer a clinic within the service in Stockton rather than asking people to travel to Middlesbrough.

The support of Elaine Dowson and Sue Reilly of The Hepatitis C Trust helped to boost numbers of people being tested, and helped people to receive their medication when they would have otherwise struggled.

Life-changing partnerships

Hepatitis C micro-elimination simply would not have been possible without these partners' crucial provision of services, and commitment to collaborative working. We offer our sincerest thanks to both services for supporting us to achieve such an amazing milestone.

While micro-elimination has been a united effort, including by all staff and colleagues of Stockton Recovery Service, we give special thanks to our Harm Reduction team members Grenville Seager and Shawn Birch, who have both displayed an abundance of motivation and energy regarding this life-saving work.

Gren and Shawn's compassion, and their investment in improving the lives of individuals accessing our service, have been outstanding.

We now look forward to working hard to maintain micro-elimination status and continuing to offer the care and treatment required to improve the lives of people.

With treatment most people can be cured, and the medication causes few or no side effects. If you’re in a vulnerable position, learn more about how to get tested and treated on our hepatitis information page.