Hi Sarah, I used to pay privately for a Gastro Specialist (at Caboolture) he was the one who sent me privately for a Fibroscan. Realising I needed a Psych assessment and ongoing monitoring and I couldn’t afford it he referred me to the Royal Brisbane – their Liver New Clinic. I had to wait a long time – more than 6 mths? to get in. being public. You don’t get any choice about who you see hence the ‘nice’ Dr with highly prejudiced views It was decided I was not eligible for Interferon (Yay! didn’t want it anyway) but ‘new’ drugs were on their way and I needed to stay in the system. So, I’ve been waiting in the system for the past couple of years or so. Finally, got a great Specialist that encouraged me, somewhat conspiratorially, to contact this site, do some research and offered to give me a script and monitoring. I’m just waiting to see my GP this week who’s supposed to have contacted him to discuss my plan.
So, if you go public then you get no choice who you see. If you want to know the name of the private Specialist who did my Fibroscan I can tell you but you will still need referral.
Good Luck

Thanks Coral, I’ve decided i’ll see what my GP says next week and what my brother’s says when he gives her all the info I printed out and if we get more ‘wait until…’ answers then i’ll go the GP2U route. Because I know from experience the Hospital clinics pretty much shut down over xmas school hols period and i won’t get to see the Specialist until Feb. I’m sick of waiting.
Sounds like your sides aren’t too bad. Given what i’ve been living with for so long now, fatigue, nausea, severe bouts diarrhoea, migraines, peripheral neuropathy and joint pain – surely can’t be worse

Thanks to Joy and you Coral for that info. I spoke to my Medical Centre yesterday, my GP has been off this week, so I don’t know if she has contacted the Specialist in Brisbane yet to find out if he can send the script or if she can write it herself. I now have to wait until next week to see her. This GP2U option sounds interesting – what does it cost? It might be a way for my brother to do this. I’ve sent him the genotype treatment article and other sections from this website to take to his GP because he’s fed up waiting to get into the Liver Clinic down there. He has cirrhosis and is not well at all but really wants to do this.
I’m relieved to have Dr Freeman say I will only require 12 weeks instead of the 24 my Specialist had thought. I’ve been reading the posts on Sof + Dac side effects to get an idea what I might be in for. I have to plan my son’s homeschooling for next year and factor in my treatment/health issues.
This is a great site and everyone is so supportive. I was registered with another HepC forum a couple of years back and a particular person was unnecessarily unkind to me so I left.

Thank you James Freeman, once i returned from that appointment i looked up this site and read that article and hence decided on the Sof + Dac treatment – noted it did say 12 weeks was recommended. I’m waiting to get back in to see my GP because she wanted to call the Specialist and discuss things with him. I was hoping she could write the script so that I don’t have to travel to Brisbane – it’s a big hassle a whole day, bus journey lots and lots of sitting around and putting my son in Respite Care I’ll know within a week anyway.