Clinical review of the impacts of hepatitis C

3. Origin of the Clinical Review of the Impacts of Hepatitis C

The origin of the Clinical Review of the Impacts of Hepatitis C stemmed from the Financial Review Group ( FRG) Report on Contaminated Blood: Financial Support: Conclusions and Recommendations 2015 ( 3 ).

The report made the following recommendations for people infected with hepatitis C through blood transfusion or blood factor in Scotland.

• For people with advanced HCV disease:
  • annual payments would be increased from £15,000 to £27,000 (sums higher for HIV co-infected individuals)
  • widows/widowers/civil partners would receive an annual payment (75% of the annual payment as above)
  • the total lump sum for those with advanced HCV would continue to be £70,000
• For those with chronic HCV (without advanced disease):
  • the lump sum would be increased from £20,000 to £50,000
• The report recommended that further work should be undertaken as follows:
  • ‘the current thresholds for Stage One and Stage Two of the Skipton Fund should be the subject of a specific, evidence-based review to create new criteria based on health impact, rather than focusing predominately on liver damage’.
  • ‘the review should also thoroughly evaluate the criteria attributing HCV to the cause of death, including death certificate data’.