Preoperative Anxiety in Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery During a Healthcare Crisis: A Referral Hospital Experience.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) remains a major global health concern, with an estimated 50 million people living with HCV worldwide and 240,000 people dying from HCV in 2022, primarily due to cirrhosis and liver cancer []. The World Health Organisation has set ambitious targets to eliminate HCV as a public health threat by 2030, aiming for a 65% reduction in mortality and a 90% reduction in new infections []. In the United Kingdom, considerable progress has been made. Between 2015 and 2023, the number of people living with chronic hepatitis C in England fell by 56.7%, now estimated at around 55,900 []. This decline is largely attributed to the rollout of highly effective direct‐acting antivirals (DAAs), which offer short, all‐oral treatment courses with cure rates exceeding 90% []. Despite these advances, challenges remain. This is particularly amongst people who inject drugs (PWID), where prevalence remains high, many individuals are undiagnosed, and reinfections occur []. Hepatitis C micro‐elimination is a focused public health strategy and offers a complementary approach to HCV elimination by targeting specific populations, services or geographic areas in which prevention, screening and treatment can be implemented more effectively through healthcare setting‐based interventions [, , ]. Within drug and alcohol services in England, micro‐elimination is defined as [, ] 100% of clients in structured treatment have been offered an HCV test.