LJWG awarded ‘Highly Commended’ for showing Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships for our pharmacy testing pilot

November 27, 2018

On 22 November 2018 the LJWG was awarded ‘Highly Commended’ for ‘Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships’ at the prestigious PMEA awards for phase 1 of our HCV pharmacy testing pilot.

The awards night was hosted by TV presenter Natasha Kaplinsky.  The judges commented saying:

“The work by LJWG on Substance Use and Hepatitis C, MSD and Principle Consulting showed a real ability to impact patient’s lives, and has the potential to improve treatment for all the patients in the pathway. This small pilot is well thought through with good planning and good training, identifying potential patients and getting those with Hep C treated to save their lives.”

On receiving the high commendation, Dr Suman Verma, co-chair of the LJWG said:

“We are honoured to receive a high commendation for our partnership work with the first stage of our HCV pharmacy testing pilot.  It’s a testament to the fantastic work of all our partners across pharmacies, local government, public health, hospitals and patient advocacy groups.

“We are pleased to be continuing with phase 2 of the testing pilot which offers point-of-care RNA testing for current infection in pharmacies for the very first time.  We are looking into the feasibility of offering treatment in pharmacies too and hope to run a pharmacy treatment pilot soon.

“Our pharmacy testing pilot is already changing and saving lives in a very vulnerable patient group, and we will soon publish results of phase 2 of our pilot.  We hope our testing model will be scaled up across the country.”

More details, please see the PMEA awards website here.