Forgot my drops

[North-Sea]

Hi everyone

I thought you might like to hear about this fall back if you are stuck somewhere without your eyedrops.

I left home on Friday for a 5 day stay with my mother in law 200 miles from home. I found I had forgotten my eye drops. I didn’t know what to do and was a bit concerned of course with my doctors surgery closed for the weekend. Anyway called the local pharmacy on Saturday morning who advised to call 111.

They answered quickly, took my details, made some checks and told me I could go immediately to the local pharmacy to collect the drops. A bit of red tape at the pharmacy getting the details through but had the drops within 30 mins.

I didn’t know about this NHS service and obviously shouldn’t have forgotten my drops but very glad it was all sorted relatively smoothly.

Hope you find this useful.

[Trish_GlaucomaUK Partner]

Thank you for sharing this information. I am sure that the other forum members will find this helpful.

[callie77]

Thank you will keep that in mind! I'm so forgetful.

[Littletreasures]

Thank you. That’s really useful to know. I always wonder what I’d do if I was going abroad and forgot them or lost them. I used to double check I’d got my passport now I double check my eyedrops!

[pjhl in reply to Littletreasures]

I arrived in France this week only to discover that I had lost my drops . I went to a French pharmacy on a Friday afternoon with everything about to shut down for the weekend and showed them what I needed from the NHS app on my phone . The pharmacist explained very reasonably that she could not dispense drops to me without a prescription and suggested that I telephone my GP surgery in the UK and ask them to email me one which I duly did .

My GP surgery was awful . The practice manager could not have been less helpful . She refused point blank to email me my repeat prescription, allow me to speak to a doctor, or to give me any help at all . She had no interest in the fact that without drops my sight would deteriorate even more . She said they would not have been able to help me even if I had still been in the UK . Clearly this was entirely my problem and not theirs .

In some desperation I then asked my hotel deep in rural France if they could help me find a local GP which they did . He asked me to come and see him more or less immediately - by now about 4pm on Friday . He had a busy waiting room but nevertheless called me in within a few minutes , gave me the prescription I needed on the spot copying it from the information on the NHS app and then absolutely refused to make any charge at all . I went straight back to the pharmacy with the prescription and was given the drops.

This whole experience was extremely stressful . My wife and I are frequent visitors to France and this is certainly not the first time that we have experienced speedier and better medical care here than we would receive in the UK .

[North-Sea in reply to pjhl]

Gosh. That’s terrible and good all at the same time. Thanks for sharing. It’s good to hear people’s experiences. Fore warned and all that

[Cuzz]

Thank you. Very useful to know.

[Vanarama]

I was able to buy Ganfort eye drops over the counter in a pharmacy in Spain .

[North-Sea in reply to Vanarama]

Good to know. Thanks for sharing.

[Iona57]

That's brilliant! Thanks for that information. It's so nice when a system works efficiently to solve your problem.

[Sorshup]

Very useful to know, thank you. Presumably applicable for all prescribed meds, so something that should be routinely advertised in surgeries, clinics and pharmacies. Meds can be lost when away as well as forgotten,it is important to keep prescription copies in wllet or handbag.

[mallright]

useful to know Thank You