Over 1,811 Australians treated March 2016 - Kirby Institute report

[Philadelphia]

The Kirby Institute has released its report into the first month of DAA access for all Australians regardless of the severity of their hep C.

It's great to see 1,811 Australians have taken the opportunity to get treated in March and hopefully cured. This is more than the whole of  last year, but we need that number to increase significantly if we are going to treat the approximately 230,000 people with HCV in Australia.

The most common uptake is sof/led for 12 weeks.

If you know an Australian with hep C encourage them to get tested, get treated and get cured. It'll cost a paltry $40ish per month, or $9 per month if you are a low income earner with a health care card.

http://www.ashm.org.au/ASHMDownloads/Kirby_HepC_Newsletter_Issue1.pdf

[Flutterby]

Thanks for posting this Philadelphia,

Update from June report (just checked)

A total of 6,503 patient PBS initial prescriptions were processed for reimbursement in March-April 2016. Based on extrapolation of wholesale data to PBS reimbursement data, to account for the time lag in reporting, an estimated 13,000 – 16,250 patients initiated hepatitis C treatment in March-April 2016.

On getting the scripts though - note there are some delays due to the hurdle requirement for specialists to sign off on GP prescriptions:

• some specialists won't sign off because they are not getting paid/'have to spend time, but no benefit to them' - so delay;
• other specialists are insisting on a face-to-face consultation, which can be very costly/unaffordable (some charge $375 for a 20 minute consult) (this is contrary to advice that you only need to consult a specialist if you have active liver disease);
  
• public hospital clinics inundated and one delaying sign-off on GP prescriptions while they 'get their forms right' - waitlist for face to face consult: nine months; 
  

GPs have to shop around - word of mouth will point to specialists who will sign.

It took three months for my GP to get the sign off. He made repeat attempts at sending requests with full details of all necessary tests to various specialists. Finally spoke to a nurse at a public hospital who 'had a friend she would call' who was a private specialist who signed off.

So it isn't perfect yet, but in time, I imagine/hope this will change, and no doubt getting access for more and more on the PBS is game changing...