Something unusual happens this summer, after France, Romania announces also that starting from October/November this year, the HCV patients with easier forms of HCV will be able to access the interferon-free therapy (at least this is what the CNAS's president [CNAS is something similar with NHS] declared some days ago). In addition to this, it was also revealed that the previous allocated budget was not entirely used..... One might think that Romania is almost free of HCV.....
BUT, did anyone talked about the barriers in accessing the therapy? One need to get a special kind of voucher from his/her doctor in order to make the blood tests and how to obtain these vouchers is not so clear. What is sure is that if you do not make the blood tests using these vouchers, let's say one makes it with own money, the access to the interfon-free therapy is denied. Perhaps I am wrong, but I do remember how unclear it is was some months ago for me to get this voucher (which I did not received) ....
So what's the point to declare patients have access to interferon-free therapy as long as the "how to" get it is unclear? To me it looks more like a nice political statement, but not so efficient in the implementation. And politics is important in these months because the elections are near...
I look forward to see how France moves the things on,
Cheers,
RHF