Just been to gp for yet more drugs!! My consultant had prescribed telithromycin antibiotics long term for my asthma, have been trying to get hold of them since last october. Anyway the minute I requested a month supply at a time i was bombarded with ""do you know these cost £20 for 10 tabs, 2 a day will be £120 a month do you really need them""? Well, my specialist seems to think so!!! Then i had the audacity to ask for the new nasal spray also suggested by my specialist, lets just say my ears are still hurting!!!! I didnt get the new spray ""its very new and expensive flixonase will do the job"" even though i have had this before and doesnt work. I think it costs an awful lot more for me to be in hospital for weeks on end and my gp refuses to see me when chest off cos scare them to death!! Then we went through my lengthy repeat prescription to ""see if we cant get rid of some"", err no! My gp as special interest in addictions so has a seperate surgery for this, they get sharps bins, needles, counselling etc. I have to beg, steal and borrow sharps bins from district nurse or husband (paramedic, comes in usefull) and forget about sof sets my consultants pays for them from ward fund and I have to collect a box when run out and grab syringes and needles when can, doesnt seem fair really does it?
Then she had the nerve to ask me to see asthma nurse for review before april or they wont get paid for it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bearing in mind the asthma nurse asks my advice about asthma and drugs etc i have never been for a review a waste of time (but thats just at my gp surgery anyone seeing there asthma nurse ignore me its the steroids talking ah ah)!
Sorry for the rant but i hate taking all these drugs as it is so to get this response does'nt make it any easier. Anyone had same experience?
I'm sure that none of the GPs who post here will be offended at all. As we know, there are good and bad people in every profession.
One thing this does go to show is that - contrary to certain opinion - GPs would much rather be prescribing *fewer* drugs and not more, but that's hardly helping you when the extra drugs have been recommended by your consultant.
Did you have a letter (or was your GP sent one) from your consultant with these drug requests on it? If not, it might be worth contacting your consultant and asking them to put the requests in writing to your GP. Alternatively, is there another GP at your practice you could ask to see?
Going through your repeat meds list is, in fact, very good practice. It's possible that some of the drugs on there are no longer available (or at least not available in the form that they appear in on your repeat), or have been superceded in your treatment plan by other meds and thus don't need to be on your repeat. Shortening your repeat list will also make it less likely for the admin staff at your surgery to make a mistake when entering repeat meds onto a script for your GP to sign.
Sharps bins can be supplied on prescription, so if you are using sharps as part of your treatment plan then you should be able to get a bin added to your script. Again, your consultant may need to write to your GP to sort this out - your GP won't be aware of whether or not your hospital is supplying them.
As far as SofSets, needles and syringes are concerned, it is not possible for ANY GP to prescribe them for you - getting them supplied by your hospital or district nurse is the ONLY way that anyone in the UK can get them.
Likewise, the only way your surgery will know exactly what your treatment plan is, is for you to have an asthma review with them. Even if it entirely consists of you simply telling the asthma nurse what your consultant has decided as your treatment plan, at least this way your surgery will know what you need on script on a regular basis. It could be that all of your problems are down to a lack of communication between your consultant and your GP, so a review might be the easiest way of sorting this out.
Hello
I am all for having fewer drugs what i object to is the decision being made on financial grounds!!
I never request new drugs from gp without a letter i have been doing this for nearly 40 yrs (yikes) and know how the system works. I regularly go through my repeats and advice my gp when something is redundent i dont take things i dont need, again i feel today this was done on a purely financial basis thats why i am, shall we say, annoyed.
I do get sharps bin on prescription but just a tiny one a month, repeated requests for more have fallen on deaf ears and when I have 12mg sc bricanyl a day this does not last long and I have a 5yr old around the house, suggestions from my gp have been to use a shampoo bottle etc, when the surgery bends over backwards for people with addiction problems, again thats what i object to, i cant even take full ones to the surgery but the addicts can, that doesnt seem very fair to me. I also know how sofsets are suppled, the point i was making is that i dont always have the energy or the puff to go to the hospital to get them (takes an hours bus ride) then I have to run round getting all the other bits.
The asthma review - well i have been to them in the past and not found them helpful. My gp understands that i go to hospital when ill, if i get to the point were i need to ask for help they know its useless for me to wait for an apt to see them as i have exhausted all my options available ie preds, ivs at home etc before i ask for help. |I have had same gp for 25yrs so they know me a little by now.
Please anyone reading this this is my own personal situation never put off going to gp if you feel unwell, the sooner you get help the better.
Peaksteve hope you dont mind me saying i found your reply quite offensive and felt the need to reply. Everyone is entitled to there opinion.
Bye for now.
I am utterly baffled that you could possibly find my reply offensive! If you could perhaps point me in the direction of the specific parts that offended you, and explain why they did so, it would be a great help.
All I was doing was offering some helpful suggestions as to what you might be able to do to rectify the situation with your GP. I wasn't aware of some of the finer points of your situation when I posted because you didn't explain them in your initial posting.
You say, ""everyone is entitled to there (sic) opinion"", and everyone is - including me - but I don't quite see where I said otherwise, or where I questioned your opinion.
Hi peaksteve
I posted a reply yesterday but due to my limited computer capabilities i messed up. Any how, basically i went on line straight after coming from gp apt not a good idea when on loads of pred!!!! Have calmed down with the help of lots of choc. Apologies for any offence caused (i seem to be saying that a lot lately).
Almo x
No worries! Hopefully you'll get the script situation sorted out soon.
All my s/c requirements are provided by county council, social services medical equipment services who provide everything requested from OT, Soc Serv and district nurses.
Do you have a district nurse allocated? I have one but never met her! LOL
She sanctions any changes too that I request within reason ( eg going from sof-sets to the streemlined silouettes) They provide all the needles, stringes, sterets, infusion sets and 5lt sharps bins. Bins go to GPs when full, though in past have bunged syringes into a liquid wash bottle with a wide neck, someone even suggested they go in the bit - refuse peeps would have a fit if the bag burst!
Some areas have a service to pick up sharps bins ................
Please ask for a District nurse to assess your needs - I am not sure if all counties, etc have the same centralised system as Essex. (They have only got one order wrong - I got 24 paediatric trache tubes one day! LOL) You should not have to beg borrow or steal stuff so to speak!
regarding asthma review - I went along a few times just to keep nice GP happy. Sat there for 5 minutes and had a laugh & a chat with nursey and the surgery gets their pennies! LOL!
I once had flixotide nebs which cost ?? £60 a box of 10 = £360 a month - they didn't really work anyway!
Use the argument about cheaper to have the drug than being is hossie - used this before years ago with a few s/c issues!
Let us know how you get on & hope the chocolate has helped
Kate ........ bouncing with pred!
Hi kate,
Glad you are home hope you are feeling better.
I have had sc bricanyl for 20 yrs and have never had any system in place to get all the eqiupment needed. The gp says the hospital prescribed it they should supply it, the ward say they supply sofsets thats it, though they do throw a box of syringes in depending on who is on duty, but wont supply the luer lok (?spelling) syringes which i prefer using. I have never been suppled with alco wipes for site, probably why i get abcesses. Needles, no chance, i draw up without, not great but what can i do?
When i go in i try to grab as much as possible and my consultant is great just
says take whatever, while ward manager gives me the evil eye lol.
Over the years i have got fed up trying to sort it and just get on with it. Luckily hubby can get hold of stuff for me as works for NHS, but not all the time.
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