terrible doctors

I have had asthma sincee i was 5 im now 18 and whenever i order my inhalers my doctors take 2 days to complete the order?! am i being paranoid is tis a bad doctors or is it normal for them to take 2 days? also my asthma is getting worse and my doctor said well we've given you a different preventer and steroids theres nothing else we can do which i think they can do something else coz im only on a blue reliever and theres stronger relievers isn't there that they could give me??

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HI Jessica and welcome!

I'm not sure how long it should take the surgery to complete things but mine says allow 48 hours from me ordering online or by the automated phone service to me picking it up at the pharmacy EDIT it seems mine might be unusually fast! Does your pharmacy have a repeat prescription scheme? That way you can tell them when you next want it so you won't run out, and they sort it all with the surgery so you don't have to.

What are you on exactly medication-wise? Because I'm pretty sure that there will be something more that they can try (different inhaled steroids, higher dose of inhaled steroid, add-on therapy like montelukast - EDIT also a longer-acting reliever), and if they can't, they should be referring you to a consultant, not telling you there's nothing else that can be done. You might want to try a different GP at the surgery as I've found they can vary a lot within the same practice!

I'd also ring the asthma nurses on here - they can have a chat, give you some ideas and help you with things to say to your GP when you go back. And I read your other post re your parents smoking round you all the time - that is terrible. I don't really know what to advise there but the asthma nurses do give practical as well as medical help so you might get some ideas there about how to deal with that situation. As you realise, that's really not going to be helping so it should be a priority to see if you can sort something out.

Good luck!

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mine says 48 hours from ordering to pick up at the pharmacy, so it does seem a long time just for the surgery to take;

Which is 2 days - the same as Jessica's surgery!

My surgery also operates on a 48 hour turn around, so it would seem to be fairly normal. Some smaller surgeries (like the one Dr Cath works at) offer a 24 hour turn around, but that's just because they have fewer patients so they normally tend to have fewer scripts to deal with.

There's not really a reliever ""stronger"" than a blue inhaler, but that's not the point as well-managed asthma should mean that you never need to use your reliever - your daily preventer meds should keep things in check. You don't say what you're on but there are loads of options here, so as Philomela says it might be worth seeking an appointment with a different GP at your surgery to see what they say.

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mine says 48 hours from ordering to pick up at the pharmacy, so it does seem a long time just for the surgery to take;

Which is 2 days - the same as Jessica's surgery!

Oops not very clear there, will have to alter. What I MEANT is that they say 48 hours from me ordering on the EMIS website to picking it up all ready to go at the pharmacy. I read Jessica's as it takes 2 days for them to get it to the pharmacy - but perhaps the pharmacy is very quick and my surgery is the one taking 48 hours so it is the same.

Also forgot to mention LABAs as an option - meant to say you can't have stronger reliever but you can have stronger preventers. There is also another reliever, Bricanyl, but I don't know what the reasons would be for changing to that as a reliever.

Agree re EMIS - it's a great service!

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What I MEANT is that they say 48 hours from me ordering on the EMIS website to picking it up all ready to go at the pharmacy. I read Jessica's as it takes 2 days for them to get it to the pharmacy - but perhaps the pharmacy is very quick and my surgery is the one taking 48 hours so it is the same.

The pharmacy that my surgery uses only takes ~30 minutes (and often only 10 minutes) to dispense a prescription, so I would say your surgery is taking the same amount of time that Jessica's (and mine) takes.

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Our surgery has a 48 hour turn around time for prescriptions as standard policy. If you need the meds urgently you have to give a valid reason for needing them faster...

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Yeah, mine is 48 hours for a repeat prescription too. I think it's standard - my old surgery at my parents' is the same.

[yaf_user681_30355]

At my surgery, it is 3 days. I order mine via email and they quite often take a day to reply and it is 3 days from the reply... very crafty!

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Hello Jessica

It is normal for doctors to say allow 2 days for prescriptions. Mine even says 3 days if ordering for repeat pharmacy pickup. However, they are often ready the next day especially if ordered ready to print and sign first thing in the morning. Have you signed for online prescription ordering on your surgery website via the EMIS/Patient.co.uk system? So much easier than getting through on the phone esp if practice has limited hours for this or dropping in a repeat slip.

JF, think mine has email ordering via online form too but it has a mysterious habit of disappearing.

As your asthma is getting worse, worth going back to see perhaps a different GP or the asthma nurse at your practice. There is plenty of options that can be tried but not in particular stronger relievers. There are for example long acting relievers amongst other add-ons to a reliever and preventer. Do you have a spacer to use with inhalers?

Also well worth having a look around the information available on this website and maybe give the Asthma UK nurses a call.

[yaf_user681_30355]

Yes TJ, there are gremlins in our email system, if I don't get a reply within 24 hours I ring the prescription dept at our surgery to check they have my repeat on order. I once had a blank email as a reply which did make me smile.

Also, I always time it to have a week's supply still in my cupboard so that I don't get stressed when there are delays.

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Hi Jessica

If your asthma's getting worse and your doctor can't think of anything else to get it under control then they should be refering you to a consultant.

2 days at my surgery for repeats.

Hope you make some progress with doctors soon. Lou