Are you a health professional, commissioner or drug service professional working in the West Midlands, East Midlands or East of England? Register here for our Midlands and East Hepatitis C ODN Educational Event.

The event is free to attend and is aimed at enhancing local service provision, exploring challenges faced by hepatitis C Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) and discussing solutions, and seizing the opportunity for progress provided by a new generation of highly effective hepatitis C drugs. The main areas of focus will be:

- Developments for Hepatitis C Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) in the Midlands and East region

- Showcasing and sharing good practice in the prevention, testing, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C

- Identifying specific issues and potential solutions for tackling hepatitis C in the Midlands and East

The event, which is being jointly hosted by HCV Action and NHS England, will be attended by health professionals, commissioners and drug service professionals working across the Midlands and East, and will include talks and workshops on the hepatitis C landscape by the ODNs established in the region, along with a range of other expert speakers.

Programme

9.30am: Registration and refreshments

10.00am: Welcome and scene setting (Dr Steve Ryder, Consultant Hepatologist, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Biomedical Research Unit, and Dr Geraldine Linehan, Regional Clinical Director, Specialised Commissioning NHS England)

Hepatitis ODN - Delivery Models and Emerging Strategy

10.10am: West Midlands Hep C ODN (Sally Bufton, Nurse Manager, and Professor David Mutimer, Clinical Lead, West Midlands Hep C ODN)

10.25am: East Midlands Hep C ODN (Professor Martin Wiselka, Clinical Lead, East Midlands Hep C ODN)

10.40am: Eastern Hep C ODN (Dr Will Gelson, Clinical Lead, and Kirsty McKibben, ODN Manager, Eastern Hep C ODN)

10.55am: Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire ODN (Kate Jack, Virology Nurse Specialist, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust)

11.10am: Refreshments

11.25am: National hepatitis C update (Professor Graham Foster, National Clinical Chair, Hepatitis C Operational Delivery Networks)

11.45am: How the global commitment to elimination was achieved (Charles Gore, Chief Executive, The Hepatitis C Trust)

12.10pm: Panel discussion

12.30pm: Lunch and networking

1.15pm: Development of the hepatitis C CQUIN aims and objectives (Claire Foreman, Senior Programme of Care Manager – Blood and Infection, NHS England Specialised Commissioning)

1.35pm: Addressing the unmet needs of patients, to work towards the elimination of hepatitis C by 2030 (David Rowlands, Director of DR-web.co.uk)

1:50pm: Hepatitis C elimination, global strategies & how England is progressing (Dr Andrew Ustianowski, Research Lead and Consultant in Infectious Diseases & Tropical Medicine, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust)

2.10pm: Hepatitis C – Assessment to Treatment Trial (HepCATT) in primary care: a cluster randomised controlled trial (Professor Matthew Hickman, Dr Kirsty Roberts, Professor Will Irving, Dr Zoe Ward and Graham Harrison, Centre for Academic Primary Care, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School)

2.30pm: Refreshments

2.45pm: Ipswich NHS Trust prison treatment in-reach (Dr Abdul Mohsen, Consultant Gastroenterologist, and Paula Roberts, Viral Hepatitis Nurse Specialist, Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust)

3.05pm: The VirA+EmiC project (Dr Sam Douthwaite, Consultant in Infectious Diseases, Directorate of Infection, St. Thomas' Hospital)

3.25pm: Outreach in Birmingham (Dr Ahmed Elsharkawy, Consultant Transplant Hepatologist, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Chairman, British Viral Hepatitis Group, and Danny Morris, Peer Support Lead for Birmingham, The Hepatitis C Trust)

3.45pm: Panel discussion

4.00pm: Conference close (Dr Steve Ryder and Dr Geraldine Linehan)