The first “decentralised community consultation” in Portugal for Hepatitis C aimed at people that use or used to use drugs will enable them to get treatment outside hospitals and therefore boost the treatment of Hepatitis C, according to the activists.
The community consultation service opened its doors on Monday at the centre of community scanning in Mouraria, in Lisbon, and is the result of a partnership with the gastroenterology service of the Lisbon North Hospital Complex (LNHC),
The objective of the programme is to treat people with “difficult lives” who do not “feel good” in hospitals, GAT’s head, Luís Mendão, said.
Portugal decriminalised drug use in 2001, changing its policy radically by going for a harm-reduction approach rather than a lock-them-up approach.