§ Mrs. BallardTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will require health authorities to provide counselling before and after blood tests for hepatitis C. [3379]
§ Mr. BoatengNo. In general, patients should be given sufficient information to enable them to make an informed decision before any diagnostic test. For hepatitis C, this would include discussion of the treatment options, the consequences of a positive test and advice about lifestyle. However, when the Chief Medical Officer wrote to all doctors on 3 April 1995 about the "Look Back" exercise to identify those infected with hepatitis C through blood transfusion, the letter specified that counselling should be made available before and after testing for those found to be infected in this way.