Health Boards
Yes, you are correct, but I have no desire for a prescription for secukinumab as this would entail getting covered with psoriasis and riddled with arthritis, then spending at least six months on useless medications, perhaps with a near death experience thrown in. Currently I am four years into systemic self-medication with excellent results. My medication is unsubsidised and costs me less than $20 a year. I wish you well and hope you get an excellent result, and please share your experience, but I doubt that you will do as well I have done with your ~$20k pa publicly subsidised treatment.
My agenda, if you like, is to see people treated in a timely manner and not left to rot. Even if you do have out of control p and/or psa for at least six months (Do you think this satisfactory?), you face the prospect of five years in limbo if three biologics fail you, or perhaps you have a different interpretation of this passage from the PBS website?
<In a single cycle, patients can receive long term treatment with a biological agent if they continue to respond to treatment.
Once a patient has failed or stops responding to treatment 3 times, they have formally completed a single cycle. They must have a minimum 5 year break in PBS subsidised biological therapy before they can start the next cycle.
In the same cycle, patients cannot fail or stop responding to the same PBS subsidised biological agent more than once.>
Against this, I went on my treatment with a wait of a few days for my drug to be shipped. I have done much better self-treating than I could ever have done through the health system. That disgusts me both from the inference to competency and its implications for Australians with severe p and psa. Mostly I am annoyed that it took me so long to understand, but in fairness understanding does take time.
Cheers,
Bill
My agenda, if you like, is to see people treated in a timely manner and not left to rot. Even if you do have out of control p and/or psa for at least six months (Do you think this satisfactory?), you face the prospect of five years in limbo if three biologics fail you, or perhaps you have a different interpretation of this passage from the PBS website?
<In a single cycle, patients can receive long term treatment with a biological agent if they continue to respond to treatment.
Once a patient has failed or stops responding to treatment 3 times, they have formally completed a single cycle. They must have a minimum 5 year break in PBS subsidised biological therapy before they can start the next cycle.
In the same cycle, patients cannot fail or stop responding to the same PBS subsidised biological agent more than once.>
Against this, I went on my treatment with a wait of a few days for my drug to be shipped. I have done much better self-treating than I could ever have done through the health system. That disgusts me both from the inference to competency and its implications for Australians with severe p and psa. Mostly I am annoyed that it took me so long to understand, but in fairness understanding does take time.
Cheers,
Bill