Following the doctors, patients, too, expressed concern about the draft order of the Ministry of Health establishing criteria for providing medical care to patients with hepatitis C. Public organization “Together against Hepatitis” appealed to President Vladimir Putin with a request to check the “lawfulness and validity” of the Ministry of Health’s draft order.
The Ministry suggested that only patients with advanced stages of liver fibrosis or cirrhosis are provided with drugs at the expense of CHI funds. The patient community believes the approach is discriminatory and warns that it may result in the reduction of the amount of therapy supply to patients. as a result, the volume of therapy may be reduced. Even now less than 1% of the estimated number of Russians living with hepatitis C receive the drug.
An organization called Together against Hepatitis asked the President to recommend the Ministry of Health to revise the criteria for providing medical care to patients with hepatitis C “in the ways that access to therapy is enhanced.”
To recall, GxP News wrote last week that the project of the Ministry of Health caused critical reaction from doctors. They expressed concern that after the order is signed, about 80% of patients with hepatitis C will lose their chance to receive therapy under Compulsory Health Insurance. The patient organisation believes that patients now have to wait until a severe liver fibrosis or cirrhosis develops, and only after that will drugs be provided to them under the CHI program.