What does my GP need to put on a prescription for additional stockings?

[gavinlwright]

Does anyone know what the GP needs to put on a prescription for ordering another pair of stockings? I have a letter from my nurse who decribes them as class three, gives a schema number etc. My surgery have had the same letter but can't do the prescription as their system does not recognise anything they enter. This has been going on for a week now and is a pain in the proverbial as I only have one pair of stockings and geting them dry for the following day is difficult.

Apparently they can't hand write a prescription now!

[Taffia]

I had the same problem with my sleeves. I ended up phoning the nurse in the hospital and eventually got the right prescription. It took weeks and is so annoying. When I finally got the right prescription I found Boots to be the best Chemist.I feel for you. Good luck.

[Lynora]

Your GP, or a medical secretary, needs to call your lymphoedema nurse to get the information.

[Christo]

It is indeed so frustrating - like it isn't exactly rocket science is it! Patience is definitely needed to cope with Lymphodema on top of all the other frustrations and irritations. The system is barely fit for purpose, but it's all we got and it's up to us to try to improve it!

Onward & upwards folks!

Cheers

Christo.

[norberte]

hi gavin

speak to your lymphoedema nurses & ask them to give you the manufacturer, garment name, compression class, size, length (might be sthg like 'c-g'), colour, & the magical thing that is the pic code (or is it the pip code? they'll know) - that's the unique code for anything that can be provided on a script

then don't lose that bit of paper! & every time you need new garments, give the surgery all that info - mistakes will still be made, but you're more likely to get the right ones more of the time

& don't forget that they're single items - if you need a pair of anything, they need to order 2!

as lynora says, you can get the gp & the lymphoedema specialist to liaise with each other but i've found that things have gone a lot more smoothly since i've insisted on having all the info i need to order repeats myself - after all, i do that with all my other scripts

2 more things to bear in mind:

there may be rationing locally about how many garments you can have every 6 months - whatever you do, don't ask about that! if there is rationing wait for someone to tell you, & meanwhile order what you need

& it's worth checking with your chemist whether the wholesaler they use deals direct with the garment manufacturer you need - it takes absolutely ages if they don't, 'cos it's all done as a special order, & it might be worth checking with a few local chemists to find one who's heard of the manufacturer

hope that helps - it is a battle, but i found that taking charge of it myself made a big difference

[gavinlwright]

Thanks to all.

It seems from a conversation with the surgery this morning it is their system that does not allow them to do the prescription. I have now insisted they handwrite one and i will take it with the letter from the clinic to boots and make sure they understand what is required.

[morganite]

if they are nhs all the prescriptions are on the system, I wear actilymph class 2 below knee stockings they are on the gp system and i get 3 pairs for 3 months, so it gives me apair to wear, one dry and one drying, they also have other brands on the system, You can ask for a hand written prescription too.

[norberte]

good luck getting them to chisel the script into a piece of stone for you, gavin!

have your gp's noticed it's the 21st century??

[gavinlwright]

Got the handwritten prescription and the letter requesting them now and have taken everything to Boots. Heres hoping thye know what they are doing.

[Whitesugar]

If you have your paper prescription and don't want to use a high street chemist, go to a website called Daylong who have a national pharmacy service. You post your signed prescription (and measurement form if you have made to measure hosiery) in an envelope they provide (or just use the Freepost address). If you have to pay it tells you on the website how to do that. Your hosiery will then be delivered to your home. It will be correct IF the GP has asked for the correct garments.