Moving to UK - Stelara

[irumudikkilli]

Hi

I have been suffering from severe plaque Psoriasis and moderate Psoriasis Arthritis since 2004. After suffering through all kinds of treatments and few hospital stays in Germany (topical, various types of UVB and PUVA, Cyclosporine, methotrexate) by all kinds of dermatologists, finally a dermatologist prescribed Stelara in 2012 and I have been clear since then. I moved to Ireland from Germany in 2015 and the new Irish dermatologist continued the prescription based on the letter from my German dermatologist.

Now, I am likely to get a job in the UK and might move there. Can someone knowledgeable about the UK system help me understand how easy it is to get it prescribed in the UK? Do have to bring in my entire medical history from Germany and Ireland or is a letter from my current Irish dermatologist and the previous letter to him from the German dermatologist suffice? I may not have any private health insurance in the UK and would have to rely on the state system.

[Fred]

I would have thought a letter from your dermatologist in Ireland and Germany would help. And as an EU citizen you have the right to NHS treatment, but I'm not sure if they will carry on with Stelara or make you jump through some hoops to get it. But if you're British then it should be easier.

Unfortunately though in the UK it's a bit of a postcode lottery and some areas are better than others.

But I live in France so I'm not 100% up on the NHS these days. Hopefully someone else will know more.

Welcome to Psoriasis Club by the way.

[jiml]

Hi irumudikkilli and   to the club I don't know the answer to your question but thought I would just say hi and to say you have come to a great place for advice, as you will be among fellow sufferers all trying to deal with the disease ...you won't see any spam or advertising here so the advice you get will be genuine without any external influence.

I think the treatment you will get here will depend on where you live ....the NHS is not that national as each area has different priorities for spending their budgets ...so where it should be a straight transition from one EU country to another it might not be that simple  ....you may well get Stelara but they may ask for your treatment history and see if they can give you something cheaper

Your first hurdle will be getting a doctor to refer you to a hospital dermatology department as general doctors can't prescribe the biological drugs ( I'm pretty sure) and just getting a referral can take a while  

I know that's not very helpful but we have a strange health service where we have had members moving from one county to another and then struggling to get a biological drug

Good luck I hope you do get it without too much hassle  
Jim

[irumudikkilli]

Thank you very much. The job I am likely to get is in Central London, so I may have to choose a place within commuting distance of Oxford Circus. I am an Irish citizen. Here the dermatologist prescribes for the whole year (but the pharmacy would insist a renewal every six months, so if my dermatologist is away on holidays, the GP sometimes prescribes it to satisfy the pharmacy).

[Fred]

As it's 12 weeks between shots, it may be worth you asking if your prescription will be honoured in the UK. If not you could ask about getting two doses (24 weeks) and taking ti with you. *It will have to remain chilled, but it could help till you get sorted in the UK.

[jiml]

Good advice fred here it does take time for appointments to come through


In central London you will probably get a doctor to refer you to  Guys and St Thomas’s dermatology department and hopefully they will authorise continuation of your treatment  

[D Foster]

Hi and welcome irumudikkilli , I would have thought that if you can bring proof of the Stelara use with you then once you get a GP sorted and then on to a derm you should be OK. I don't know what the position of getting a GP in London is but where I live it's increasingly difficult but if you contact NHS England they should be able to advise you and possibly get you one sorted, at the very least they can get something temporarily sorted out. I am NHS but it's outsourced to Spire (was BUPA) and they place 12 months prescriptions with Lloyds Healthcare ( Was BUPA) as all Stelara in UK is supplied via them ( there may be others similar suppliers in different parts of the UK ) and not as far as I am aware through a normal pharmacy.
Have a good look around and just ask away if you have any questions. Dave

[Turnedlight]

I would think you dermatologist should be able to advise on this, and maybe they can write to the relevant health authority in advance to try and make it a smooth transition.
The different health authorities within the uk are pretty much separate entities and if you move from one to another they have to write to the new health authority to get continuation of treatment and organise the transition. But it’s ultimately up to the new health authority you are moving to, and their polices as to what treatment they want you on.
They all follow the NICE pathways, where you try one treatment after another before you get to the biologics so if you have records to show you’ve done methotrexate, cyclo etc this might help.

I think this is how it works anyway, that’s the experience I’ve had..

[irumudikkilli]

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate this. This is the first time ever I have registered in a forum like this for something so private, I am a bit overwhelmed with such prompt responses, support, and pointers. There seems to be some GPs around Oxford Circus who don't seem to have any long waiting times to visit and the pointer from jiml to jump the hoop from there to Guys and St Thomas's looks very promising. I checked the potential private insurance the potential employer might offer, they are not good unfortunately, so have to rely on the NHS system. 

I briefly lived in the UK eons ago. My favourite barber in Uxbridge told me he spotted something wrong in my head. My GP told me it was nothing, just some spot. Soon some other spot appeared in my leg. The substitute GP told me it was nothing, dry skin, just put some lotion.

All of a sudden, my whole body was covered with I did not knew with what. I did not trust my surgery anymore in the UK. I flew to Germany (where my wife was working and hand some private insurance that covered me). They diagnosed it for what it is. I kept flying back to Germany for hospital visits and treatments. As my first son was about to be born, I decided to move back to Germany. Found a job at some stage while trying to do some freelancing.

I hid my condition from my employer in Germany and spent annual vacation times in places like Bad Bentheim, Bad Fulda, Ludwig-Maximilian Clinic etc. Even in Blue Lagoon (Iceland) in desperation and still carry the scars from there when my mother died and was in no position to travel from there to see her.

After seeing an array of dermatologists in Germany ("top" ones thanks to my wife's insurance and "ordinary" ones thanks to my state insurance), someone prescribed Stelara and it restored some kind of quality of life. 

My Irish dermatologist tried to put me on something called Otezla, the psoriasis came back with extreme vengeance, Stelara it is I told him. He suggested something called Cosentyx, I said no. Something has been working for a while, you wanted to experiment, disaster happens.

Now potentially back to UK because I have to feed my stomach. I am very concerned given my health condition complicating this. As I understand from the replies, even postal codes matter in UK now.

I apologise to everyone here, it was not my intention to reveal my recent life story or elicit any kind of sympathy. I am just very tired dealing with all these. I just wanted to put my thoughts somewhere someplace.

[Fred]

No need to apologise, you are amongst others that understand.  

It is difficult to join a new forum and feel accepted, but here we pride ourselves of welcoming  our new members and treating them as we would like to be treated. You will find as you get to know us that some have different ways of speaking to each other, but we all have respect for each other. Should you ever feel uncomfortable at Psoriasis Club you can contact me or a Staff

For even more privacy we have some active members only boards, I can recommend the [Group Specific] if you want to get to know some of our members. I'm the only sensible one in there by the way.