Rituximab treatment denied

Lottie

Hello everyone. I'm new here. My specialist told me the other day that my Rituximab infusions will be halved this year due to Covid (?) I usually have 2 infusions over a 3 week period then 6 months later the process is repeated. However, this year I will only be allowed 1 infusion and will have to wait 6 months to have 1 more. Has anyone else experienced this? I'd like to know if there is anything I can do about it as without the full treatment I will have a flare up again.

Anna

Hi @Lottie and welcome to the online forum.

Covid has certainly disrupted NHS services for some people and I can understand why you are concerned that your Rituximab infusions will be halved this year. I notice that you have put a question mark after ‘Covid’ - is this because you are not sure if that is the reason for the reduction? It might be worth contacting your specialist to talk it over with them - there might be other reasons for the decision.

There have been several discussions on rituximab by our members - if you type ‘ rituximab’ into the search bar on the left hand corner, you can read some of them. Meanwhile, you might be interested to read the information that Versus Arthritis has written on the drug:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/drugs/rituximab/

Best wishes,

Anna : )

Lottie

Hi Anna. Thank you for your reply. I have already spoken to my Specialist, he was the one who told me my treatment would be halved due to Covid. I put the question mark after the word Covid as I wasn't sure if my treatment was halved because of the risk of Covid. However, I now know that it's because of the cost. The NHS are trying to save money.