Factsheet - Hepatitis C Treatments (Page 4 of 5) in pdf

Filling of prescriptions

Scripts are usually filled for a month at a time. S100 scripts are written as public hospital items and need

to be dispensed in the public hospital pharmacy. Hospital pharmacies will usually be able to fill scripts on

the day.

The new S85 (General Schedule streamlined approval) scripts are written by GPs or specialists and are

dispensed at community pharmacies. Community pharmacies don’t usually have the capacity to carry

stocks of the DAA medicines, but will order them in – usually within 72 hours.

It is important to remind the community pharmacy to order in the next month’s supply of medications

about a week before the medications are due to be collected.

Online pharmacies

Hepatitis C treatment drugs can also be ordered from online pharmacies. While this might not be as

secure as customers picking up their treatment drugs from a local pharmacy, it will be very helpful for

people who live in parts of NSW with no pharmacies that fill these scripts.

Consumers are required to

•

fill in their details online

•

phone the pharmacy

•

post the prescription to the address provided on the website.

The pharmacy must first receive the prescription. Once they receive the script, they will place the order

for the medicine, which may arrive within 1-2 days and then the medicine is delivered through Australia

Post.

Try the following online pharmacies…

https://

If the treatment drugs don’t appear in their ‘search’ option, people should call the online pharmacy. They

can take orders over the phone (generally, a medicine doesn’t go live on their site until it’s ordered

previously). Further, online pharmacies prefer to receive a call about the script beforehand so they can

explain to the consumer the process.

Treatment costs

People are charged only the usual monthly co-payment paid for a prescription. This is currently $38.80

per month for general patients and $6.30 per month for concessional patients.

Treatment monitoring and follow up

Viral load is not checked while people are on treatment as the result does not affect the treatment

duration. Only liver enzymes, kidney function and full blood count are checked at week 4 of treatment.

If ribavirin is required in the treatment, then most people will have blood tests every month of treatment.

Some hospital clinics may use different monitoring protocols based on whether or not people have other

illnesses and the complexity and severity of their hepatitis C disease.

All people will require a PCR viral detection test 12 weeks after treatment finishes to check if they are

cured. It is VERY IMPORTANT to attend for this post-treatment check up. People should not assume

that treatment has cured their hep C; they should find out for sure with the final PCR test.

Factsheet - Hepatitis C Treatments Page 4