The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) will fund the new hepatitis C medicines for prisoners even though health care in custodial settings are usually paid for by state and territory governments.

According to a Department of Health fact sheet, this recognises that "prisoners are a priority population for the treatment of hepatitis C". State and territory health and justice departments will ensure that processes are in place so that prisoners are prescribed and provided with these medicines. 

The fact sheet for health consumers was released together with the announcement of a $1bn investment to make the new hepatitis C drugs available on the PBS from 1 March next year.

The fact sheet reiterated that the new treatments will be available through the PBS for all patients with chronic hepatitis C, regardless of genotype and disease severity.

It pointed out, however, that the treatments which are available for a particular patient will depend on the patient’s disease genotype and whether there had been previous treatment for the condition.

The new hepatitis C medicines can be prescribed by General Practitioners in, or following, consultation with a specialist physician. Specialists may also prescribe these medicines.

Image by Sharon Sperry Bloom/Flickr/Creative Commons

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