Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the NHS is taking to improve hepatitis C diagnosis and treatment rates among the South Asian community.

A number of activities are being undertaken by commissioners and providers across the National Health Service and in collaboration with other stakeholders to improve diagnosis and treatment rates among the South Asian Community. These include:

- A Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Certificate in the Detection, Diagnosis and Management of Hepatitis B and C in Primary Care has been developed to help raise awareness in primary care and among other professionals working with groups at high risk of chronic viral hepatitis infection;

- A dedicated NHS Choices webpage to raise awareness and encourage testing in the South Asian community at:

http://www.nhs.uk/hepatitisc/southasian/Pages/default.aspx

- A National Institute of Health Research funded programme to study the best ways to test and treat patients born outside the United Kingdom who are at risk of viral hepatitis which is actively recruiting people in Bradford and East London from the South Asian communities to optimise diagnosis and treatment in this group; and

- A range of partnerships, such as the Hepatitis C Coalition which brings together key stakeholders, including NHS England to address issues in specific communities such as those in the South Asian community;

In addition, resources have been produced by NHS England Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Action on understanding and addressing the barriers to testing and accessing treatment in the South Asian community.