Have you been asked by your GP (in the UK) to cut down one of your drugs?

I was recently asked by GP, not specialist, to take one Mirapex slow release instead of two 0.52mg. Ordinarily I might have said yes relying on his opinion but intuition made me ask why. The answer was cost cutting. Of course I said NO. Please check with your specialists before changing anything. Don't be pushed into generics either if you can avoid them.

[Carrigan]

Good point what a cheek. Wonder if the GP manages his daily acvtivities of living independently or needs medication to aid him or prevent falling , the cost of carers and cost of falls in health service horrendous thanks for sharing .

[asborne]

Was told firm no longer made a medication. Asked firm and found out gp wanted to give me less pricey medicine.

[Hidden in reply to asborne]

I am constantly amazed that so many of us are having the same problems.

Firstly I think that "Parkinson's Disease" is too large an umbrella for the GPs. They need to know a few facts about many illnesses. They check their books, in my experience, then lump us all together despite varying symptoms. Other ailments and pains are often blamed on Parkinson's.

Thank goodness for specialists.

Who supervises what is prescribed and keeps everyone up to date? It would make sense that one group would monitor one disease.

[alllowercase]

i am opposite regarding the meds, in that, seeing how small sinemet are, and their shape i have difficulty swallowing them. the generic, co-coreldopa, is the size of a paracetemol, and round in shape. the pharmacy tell me they are unavailable, which i have refused to accept.

mind you, one reason i changed GP recently was that my previous doc openly refused to fund a dietician on cost grounds, even although i had lost almost 1/3rd of my body weight in less than 6 months. the dietician got so angry that her bosses treated me free.

[honeycombe3]

Can I answer this question with another one? I have never found a problem in the past using generic meds - our GP practice always uses them where possible - but co-careldopa tablets have a hard, nasty tasting shell. Since my successful emergency recovery treatment has been to chew a Sinemet+ (or 1/2) when needed I am stymied. Co-careldopa does not crush in the mouth so cannot be used in this way. Has anyone else had this problem & if so is there an alternative other than Sinemet+?

[carolineb211]

It is a scary thought that now GP's control their finances, we might not get the meds we need as we do at the moment. Us parkies must be expensive to treat. What if they decide to limit what they can spend per person ?

I take 5 different meds a day and know lots of you take even more! Why give this responsibility to people who haven't got the skills and knowledge to understand this disease and its treatments or that of many other conditions. That's why we have specialists!!.

[PatV]

The first thing my neuro told me was stay under-medicated. Also I found Mirapex not that helpful. On the contrary. All the same, your doctor's reasoning is fishy if you're willing to pay.

[Hikoi]

Threads

Does that mean your GP was asking you to change from short acting to long acting Mirapex. If so that is disturbing.

[Hidden]

No, he was asking me to take a slightly lower dosage with one pill instead of two!