TOPIC:

Dont be put off going to your GP .I went to see my GP today to tell him my intention to use generics and to discuss a drug interaction between daclatasvir and amlodopine (blood presure med). He changed that for an alternative on the spot . He had no problems whatsoever with what i intend and would be happy for the practice nurse to do any blood tests i asked for.

hi Wilko,

I totally agree with you, as I too had a good response both from my GP as well as NHS hospital consultant concerning using generic meds.
At the end I did not need to use my GP, as my consultant agreed without any difficulty to monitor my tx & do all the tests at the hospital.
He already ordered all the bloods for the whole of 12 weeks tx & just had all my base bloods done.
The only thing that is halting me to start tx is waiting for my DAC to arrive as there are huge delays, I already sourced Sofo from India, but been waiting now 3 weeks for DAC & it still did not arrived.

So talk with your GP or consultant, you never know until you do. Some will be OK with monitoring some will not.

My GP surgery does blood tests for me although I have not seen NHS consultant and using generics. They had to phone call the lab and ask what heading do they ask for tests under as they were not in the list , were advised to go to "other" column and type by hand the name of the test so it did requre extra effort from them.

Hello Everybody,

regarding the doctors monitoring the patients taking generic drugs, you can get a very good view by watching the last ~3 minutes from this webinar organized by WHA and to which Dr. Andrew Hill participated. Please follow the very last question (48min50sec) where someone sent the question whether a doctor can get in trouble if he/she is monitoring a patient taking generic drugs.



Cheers,
RHF

I am based in East Kent. When I told my GP that I was going to source generic medication from India he was very supportive and offered to do all the monitoring himself. His view was that I knew more about the subject than he did himself so he asked me to let him know which tests were needed and when and he would do the rest. He's been as good as his word and has been kind, positive and encouraging throughout the whole gutty process.
This was in marked contrast with the way the Consultant behaved. His attitude was casual and uncaring. The last time I saw him was last December when he said that he'd see me "in a few months" and would refer me to his nurse's clinic for monitoring. This was confirmed in a letter which arrived in mid January. I have heard nothing since…….I don't think it can reasonably be claimed that this was due to a shortage of funds, it is just plain old fashioned neglect and I'll be making a formal complaint.

My GP surgery is in the city centre, a large practice which has a liver clinic once a week. I also have a Consultant in the hospital.
My GP did tests in March, and came back positive hep C
I was offered the usual interferon and Ribervan....told my Consultant, Liver Nurse and GP that I wanted to do generic treatment with fixhepc....
So my liver nurse has been doing blood tests, in GP surgery. This has come out of GP surgery budget.
But they are all keeping in the loop...the nurse is from the hospital and works with my Consultant. I have 3 days left on 12 weeks of sofosbuvir & daclatasvir .... all looking good on that thankfully...
My GP has been so supportive because at the end of the day the Consulant had said he wouldn't monitor, he did say he would re visit the subject at the next ' meeting'.... and it's a stress you could do without really isn't it.... they know generics work... we know they work ....