Is this a waste of NHS money?

[Ritchie1268]

I was in my local Boots the other day for something & the Pharmacist called me over as she knows me from the days when I had to go their daily.

"We have a prescription for you" she said.

I was somewhat puzzled as I wasn't expecting anything!

She read the script out & it had the name of the nurse who gives me my 3 monthly injection, which I always go to the surgery for, never before have I had to pick it up from the Pharmacist beforehand.

When I opened it, inside a cardboard box was one ampoule of Hydroxocobalamin.

When I said I've not been informed about this as I've never known this to happen before, I just turn up at my surgery, get the injection & that's it, the pharmacist just shrugged her shoulders.

Is this a new policy I've not been informed of?

Not a word from my surgery. I'm wondering now if I just turned up for my injection would they turn me away?

Is it me just being me, or does this seem like a complete waste of money & packaging in these days of gloom surrounding the NHS & recycling??

[Goaliegirl]

I don’t know about your practice but I have to get my prescription and bring it with me. I get a box of 5 and they’re given every 3 months. Last appointment date was written (as usual) on the box and given back to me. I usually just bring it home and put it away again until that date. When I went up this time it turned out the box was empty. It had been rattling because of the plastic in it. They sent me home again ... told me to return the following week for the prescription and then the following week again for the injection. Yes it is both a waste of time and money for the NHS... and for me, I’m sorry, it looks as though you are gonna have to do this also.

[Ritchie1268 in reply to Goaliegirl]

So it's not just me waffling on as usual then 😁

I just don't get it. My doctor even knows I SI & I've offered to cancel my 3 monthly at the surgery to save the NHS money, as long as they keep it on my records I have PA & I SI.

Then to pick 1 ampoule up to take with me that I found out by accident as it's very rare I visit the chemist now.

How can they possibly complain that the NHS is stretched when they do this kinda stuff!

And then we wonder why the UK is struggling 🙄

[Ritchie1268]

😲 Sorry you're struggling! Surely it's much cheaper to spend 10 seconds on the phone to ask if you're ok than to send an inhaler you no longer need? 🤔

[Ritchie1268]

Hope your leg gets better soon! And I will speak to my nurse this week when I go for my 3 monthly to ask why money is being wasted 👍

[Nackapan in reply to Ritchie1268]

My mum was visited by a district nurse. She was expecting her b12 injection. The nurse got really annoyed with her as he said she has the ampoules. He even looked in her fridge. My mum 89 told him she hasn't got thrm and had not been told she would. He left. No injection done. Then when her other Meds delivered the b12 was amongst it!!

Waste of nurses time. Also delayed injection. Very odd system. She wasn't informed either.

Seems an added complication if having your injection at the surgery. Doesn't make sense to me. At the moment they send over a prescription and it goes to the surgery. There is alot of wasted medication. They keep sending my mum Meds she said she has too many of. I when able and before ill would return it unopened . It had to go in the bin as had left the pharmacy.

[Nackapan]

Hope you feeling better soon...ouch

[deniseinmilden]

Hiya!

Sorry to hear about your falls and balance - not at all good. 😔

I know you're really knowledgeable and sorted but just wondered if you have any improvement in your balance if you increase your folate?

I confess I don't know my levels I just take a bit more when I get wobbly and it sorts it out but obviously appreciate that you may have other causes for it.

Did you know there are physio exercises that you can do to help sort out vertigo? They are explained online. I confess I can't work out what they mean when I'm really dizzy (more than just being blonde!! 😜) and if I take extra folate I'm OK again and forget to look them up but you might find them helpful?

[Nackapan in reply to deniseinmilden]

I did Cawthorne exercises for vertigo and dizziness . Really simple ones that you can do in bed too. I wrote each exercise down on a card.

Some are just for your eyes.

I found they do work. Use a sick rather than a ball as soft when it hits something lol

[deniseinmilden]

It's mad and maddening, isn't it?

Thank you for sharing this with us - it's good to know I'm not alone in these sort of experiences.

When I broke my leg just below the knee I was sent for an MRI scan because they thought it was bone cancer. When I got there, they went to scan my ankle so I asked them to check back with orthopaedics as I knew it was my knee that needed doing - my ankle was fine! They insisted on scanning my ankle - and pronounced it to be fine!! Spitting feathers I said "I know it is", etc.

I then had to go back to my GP to get another orthopaedic referral to get another scan done, at £kk a time, this time on my knee, several weeks later!

All this time I was going about without any treatment or plaster or anything, on crutches that I'd borrowed from my neighbour, driving myself about and carrying on working on a farm, including with cattle (and showing them!!) because I'm self employed and couldn't afford to take time off. With a diagnosis I could have got financial support from the owner, especially as it was one of his cattle that had kicked me, but without it I was stumped. I broke my leg on the 2nd May and finally got the diagnosis for it - and the bone cancer all clear - on the 25th August, by which time it was mostly OK!

That mistake cost the NHS goodness knows what! I don't get any jabs from them coz it costs me more to get in my car to get them!

[Gambit62 Administrator]

it may be a glytch - suggest you speak to the surgery - hydroxo will be on your list of repeat medications (it is on mine) but it doesn't go through to the pharmacist.

[Ritchie1268]

I will do thanks Gambit62

[deniseinmilden]

Thankfully the knee episode showed my Dr I was stoic and wasn't attention seeking and I think this was in my favour when I needed B12 injections!

At least for a while, as a trial to see if boosting your levels helps, it would probably be worth taking the 400mcg folic acid (or whatever multiples thereof you need to keep your symptoms at bay) as well as the 200mcgs in your multivitamin and mineral supplement. 1st

To give you an idea, the ones that Drs prescribe to people who are short of folate (and you can buy without prescription from Amazon, etc, are 5mg = 5000mcg (the equivalent of your multivit plus 12 of the 400mcg ones!).

Don't forget if your body is healing the damage to your knee you will use up more B12 and supporting supplements and therefore make you more prone to deficiency symptoms.

I hope it helps you and you feel better soon! x