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A prison physician is calling for a full and independent review into the drop in treatment rates.
New data released by Correctional Services Canada (CSC) reveal a dramatic decline in the number of inmates in treatment for hepatitis C as the service struggles with budget cuts, increasing inmate populations and exploding hepatitis treatment costs.
According to the data obtained by CMAJ following an Access to Information request, the number of inmates treated for hepatitis C dropped in all but one year between 2007 and 2013. There were 328 patients treated in 2007, dropping to 229 by 2013 — a 29% reduction during a time when the federal prison population increased about 25%, to more than 15,000.
Two physicians and two nurses working in federal prisons say access to hepatitis treatment has been sharply reduced in all prisons and is unavailable in some prisons. One of the two physicians and both nurses who spoke with CMAJ about lack of access to hepatitis C treatment requested they not be named for fear of professional reprisal. They warned that in restricting access to hepatitis C treatment, CSC risks inflaming the spread of the disease — which is considered a major public health threat affecting at least 250,000 Canadians — inside prisons and, if prisoners are released, among the public at large.
The other physician, Vancouver-based Dr. John Farley, who treats inmates in eight federal prisons in British Columbia, went on the record, saying that “there should be a full and independent review of this situation. Decisions about hepatitis C treatment have been taken out of the hands of clinicians at the point of care. Numerous barriers to treatment have been created to reduce the number of inmates who get treatment.”
Read more: http://www.cmaj.ca/site/earlyreleases/29oct15_federal-inmates-treated-for-hep-c-drop-29-percent-cmaj.109-5181.xhtml