Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 1 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Elimination of Hepatitis C: Discussion

Mr. Marcus Keane:

Again, this comes back to the geographic issue of accessibility we discussed earlier. It depends where the person is. If a person is based near Dublin city centre and can link in with a peer worker from the Mater hospital, to a network there or with Dr. O'Carroll, that is great. He or she will receive top-of-the-line care and move quickly through the system. That changes, however, if the person is located in a more rural area that is away from an urban centre. There may be barriers to accessing community testing in such areas and the person might have to go to a hospital to get tested. It is a barrier if the person has to travel for an hour or whatever it is to get to the hospital. The split or disparity in terms of accessibility within Dublin and outside Dublin is a real issue.

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