Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 19 April 2016 to Question 33687, what funding and support (a) his Department and (b) NHS England have provided to integrate blood-borne virus testing into mobile digital radiology screening for active TB in line with NICE guidance NG33 of January 2016.

As yet, no funding has been allocated to include blood-borne virus (BBV) testing into mobile screening outreach services.

NHS England has provided additional funding to the London ‘Find & Treat’ mobile health unit so that they can offer latent Tuberculosis testing and treatment. The Find & Treat service continues its discussions with the Hepatitis C Trust to work in partnership to provide on-the-spot screening for hepatitis C and onward care.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance NG33 published in January 2016 suggests that integrating BBV testing into mobile digital radiology screening services would be good practice. NHS England has expressed an interest to consider this further, and discussions continue with the lead London Clinical Commissioning Groups.