Hello, my dad's eye drops prescription ran out on Monday. I thought he could get another prescription from Moorfield's eye hospital on Tuesday when he had his checkup. Instead the hospital said they'd write to the doctor in two weeks so the repeat prescription could be renewed.
His checkup showed no changes since his February diagnosis, but I'm worried that not using the drops will make his pressure go back up and cause damage. I heard that there's a harmful "spike" that causes harm if the drops aren't used. He hasn't used the drops in two days now.
Will 1-2 weeks without the drops cause damage? He's used them every day since his diagnosis 6 months ago. Never missed a day.
Thanks in advance.
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sunrisesunset
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Curious as to why the consultant hasn’t already written to your dad’s gp letting them know that they need to give him a repeat prescription 6 months ago. Sorry for not offering anything useful here
It was a repeat prescription for 6 months. We thought it was because the GP knew he'd get a checkup and might need a new prescription. Fortunately his eyes haven't changed, but unfortunately the drops ran out.
Hi, perhaps a call to your dads GP explaining what was discussed at his check up, and that he is to continue with the eye drops, a confirming letter will be sent from Moorfield, but in the meantime he needs a script as he currently ran out of eye drops and is going without his needed medication. I’d be surprised, seeing as it will be on his medical records that he has been on the eye drops, if the GP didn’t issue a prescription.
Hi, This sounds normal, apart from the normal procedure would be to also write a one off prescription that he could collect from the hospital on the day, so he doesn't run out, it's not good to stop using drops like this. I think he needs to speak to the hospital asap and get a one off prescription written out, or speak to the GP and say he can't wait.
I can only assume that the system is different here in Scotland. I have had glaucoma for over 10 years. I have an on-line prescription set up by our local Health Centre (not hospital) and can order more eye drops (3 different types) via Internet. I then receive a text message telling me when the prescription is ready to collect from the pharmacy next to the Health Centre. The whole process seldom takes more than 2 days. Of the 3 types of drop I use, 2 are very fluid and it is easy to waste some when administering so I do sometimes run out, but as I say, the ordering process is very quick.
The GP's receptionist claims that we've got enough prescription until mid September. For some reason they think that he got a prescription in mid August - that didn't happen. His last prescription was the end of July We have to wait until Monday, a week since his last drops. The receptionist was losing her patience, so I had to leave it be.
It happened to me. My gp is pretty good but the hospital hadn’t written to them following my diagnosis so the gp wasn’t able issue a prescription when my drops from the hospital ran out. The gp said I should ring the consultant’s secretary who finally emailed the gp. But it took a good few phone calls to get through to the secretary. I eventually rang his private practice secretary who gave me a direct number for the nhs secretary. It’s worrying so that’s what I suggest you do.
Agreed - I am at Moorfields too and whenever I have this kind of a problem I contact the consultant's secretary by email and/or phone. Once I'm through to her, the consultant acts quickly. I don't know how near you are to Moorfields but maybe you could pick up the prescription direct and go straight to their pharmacy, so you didn't have to wait until a letter was sent to your doctor, making further delay.
Your fathers treatment should be ongoing. a 6 month repeat prescription does not make sense at all. A repeat prescription should be ongoing. 1-2 weeks is too long with drops. In fact a week would be. You need to call the eye secretary explaining the situation and get them to email the GP requesting a new prescription as soon as possible. In the meantime, call the GP and tell the receptionist that you would like a callback from the GP explaining the situation and request a new prescription. They wouldn't know the importance of the continuation of your fathers treatment, so are just speaking to you as they would with any other patient in the same prescription situation as your fathers.
A similar situation happened to me earlier this year and I went without using daily eye drops for four days before my check up with the eye consultant. I was advised by the consultant that this could cause a spike in pressure and he immediately gave me a prescription. I actually ended up in A&E eye hospital with raised pressures that day.
Is it possible you could bypass the doctors reception and speak with the treatment room who can issue prescriptions in such circumstance? I know pharmacies used to loan a bottle of drops in desperate cases.
Please don’t delay in trying to getting eye drops for your father. Good luck!
My sister is more assertive than me. She finally got the receptionist to see how serious this is, but now we've got another problem. We've been ordering from Pharmacy2u. They haven't posted his eye drops medication but also haven't released it from the system so we can collect it locally. Their phone lines and chat lines are down. I should've stuck to the offline pharmacy...
I also use Pharnacy2U and have experienced delays in receiving medication. Hopefully by now you have managed to speak to one of their care team via phone and they have released a code to you so you can collect locally? It’s a shame you aren’t located in Bristol as I could have tried to help! They will likely only give you one bottle so I tend to put in another prescription right away to avoid running out in the future. Best of luck!
Thanks for the offer! I'm in London, so too far away.
The code didn't work because the GP only issued 6 prescriptions. Pharmacy2u didn't mention that last week, but another customer representative told me when I messaged today. The gp issued another prescription and we'll collect it tomorrow morning. The pharmacies are closed now.
I've been scared off the online pharmacy now. The offline pharmacist made me feel a little guilty for jumping ship. I've learned my lesson.
Pharmacy2u said the GP only gave 6 repeat prescriptions, so we had to ask the gp for a new prescription. It's too late to get the drops today so we'll get them tomorrow morning. There are enough prescriptions for three months.
Thanks for the help and advice. I'll keep it mind when he goes for another checkup.
It's the same here in Canada. You have to get a new prescription every year. If I don't have complaints, why the pharmacy cannot continue the prescription after one year. And every year when I go to my eye doctor for a prescription, he has to repeat a complex of routine checking eyes. and scanning the background with very strong lights, telling me to look directly into the strong light. The consequence has been bad for my eyes. Every year my vision deteriorates more and more just the same day after getting those routine lights into the eyes. Then I have to increase the degree of my glasses every year by +1 degree, which is not reparable, resulting in weakening my vision.
Is the doctor doing it right? At the opticians/eye hospital, they asked me to look straight ahead while they shined a light into my eye. They never told me to look directly into the light. I don't have an eye condition e.g. glaucoma, so I only get the usual eye glasses checks.
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