The post COVID-19 and liver patients first appeared on SHCA - Swiss Hepatitis C Association.

Following an extraordinary members meeting in Ljubljana/Slovenia on 25th November, the Swiss Hepatitis C Association and 11 other national organizations, declared that they will be leaving the European umbrella association ELPA, effective from 31st December 2018.

The following members have left:

• Hepatitis C Trust (founding member), UK
• Deutsche Leberhilfe e.V. (founding member), Germany
• Sano-Hep (founding member), Romania
• EPAC (founding member), Italy
• Dutch Liver Patients Association, the Netherlands
• Hepatitis Aid Austria, Austria
• PBC Foundation, UK
• Hellenic Liver Patient Association, Greece
• Stop Hepatitis, Ukraine
• HepActive, Bulgaria
• Hepatitis, Bulgaria
• Swiss Hepatitis C Association, Switzerland

The SHCA had just joined in 2018 the ELPA umbrella organisation created in 2004. The past months revealed a deep divide between a part of members and the board, and also within the membership itself, about fundamental questions regarding governance, transparency and which direction the umbrella association should take in the future. The extraordinary general members meeting in Slovenia could not resolve these differences. Therefore, the 12 organizations decided that they can better serve the needs of patients by leaving ELPA and forming a new organization.

The 12 former members of ELPA declared on 30 November that they will continue to work together for the sake of all liver patients and, in doing so, are determined to follow the highest standards of transparency, patient centricity and good governance. Further steps of a cooperation across borders in a future association are being discussed at this moment.

Swiss Hepatitis C Association

The post SHCA Swiss Hepatitis C Association and 11 other patients organizations leave the European umbrella association ELPA first appeared on SHCA - Swiss Hepatitis C Association.

Come numerous and support our cause in order to be able to eliminate hepatitis in Switzerland by 2030. We plan a joint evening with grill fun. This place will be communicated later.

The post Awarness day for World Hepatitis Day – Zurich 28.7.2017 first appeared on SHCA - Swiss Hepatitis C Association.

Nevertheless, Dr. Koch of the Federal Office of Public Health openly claims in the press and on television that all patients who need treatment get one. The desperate people who contact us again and again, make different experiences.

Ms. Tanja Klein contacted us after the television news program on SFR 1 “10 vor 10” on 24 January. She could not leave unheeded the spread of such lies on the part of the Federal Office of Public Health. Her fate has shaken us. Mr. Klein lost his life in a few months. Diagnosed too late, any help came too late. If a true hepatitis strategy had been implemented, as we have been claiming for years, this sad outcome would have been very likely preventable.

Some health insurance companies do their utmost to avoid having to pay for these life-saving treatments for hepatitis C. A particularly sordid example: A patient has cirrhosis of level F4, and the health insurance company Atupri refuses to pay for the treatment for 10 months. The patient fears for his life, his doctor is fighting windmills. It’s criminal.

While patients are fighting for their lives, they are officially appeased and delayed. The Federal Office responsible does not care about the Health Insurance Act. How many Swiss patients still have to die from hepatitis C, how many still have to suffer and wait for treatment? We demand: This miserable game of cat and mouse on the patient’s back must stop!

The post Swiss Hepatitis C patients : abandonned by the system first appeared on SHCA - Swiss Hepatitis C Association.