As above I have exhausted the pharmacies in our town.
Not only can’t they get them they didn’t give a fig! 😡 I can assure all that I was perfectly polite, just totally defeated with it all. I think we are to go to them for first line advice. How will that work if they can’t even give appropriate care at that level of their expertise.
Actavis , not Teva is written on my script!
I give up.😢
Actavis is usually available at Boots, as that is what I have. Hope you find some. Teva made me very ill back in 2012 and I cannot tolerate mercury pharma either.
Hi I tried Boots in my town , much the same , couldn’t do anything.
I believe Boots have been bought by a foreign company. 🤑
Boots are part of Walgreen Boots Alliance. A gigantic company.
They usually have Almus - which is Actavis packaged under their own name.
Lloyds usually have Northstar - which is also Actavis packaged under their own name.
Latest where I live is they , Boots, get what is sent from the wholesalers.
They were of no assistance to obtaining other than Teva.
I may get something from a pharmacist 10 miles away from where I live!
You might have read earlier in the year where I posted about my own interaction with my local pharmacist, during which he actually said that he ordered only by the active ingredient, and as long as he was supplied with that correct active ingredient he wasn't at all concerned about the excipients, because they didn't matter...... I hammered the point home that for some patients, they very much did matter and he was genuinely surprised. In my case I don't have a problem with sensitivities or allergies to date, and I was raising my concern about the principle of my being supplied some anonymous tablets in a pot, with no manufacturer identified; so I don't know how common that attitude and belief is, but your experience seems to be being increasingly replicated across the board. One wonders what commercial master plan is driving Teva to not only corner the market, but own it, by apparently consistently undercutting other brands. The only way things can change is by a radical overhaul of the way pharmacists are reimbursed and remunerated, so that they are neither penalised for dispensing dearer brands nor encouraged to source the cheapest supplies, contrary to prescriptions explicitly requiring a particular named item. And that would require a major professional and legal shift in the situation whereby in the UK we have perversely ended up with generics costing more than their parent drugs.
It’s tricky. You are right in your post
Thanks for Understanding our dilemma
Two options.......ring all pharmacies in 10 mile radius
Try online pharmacies
It's completely unacceptable
I have same problem, can only tolerate one brand (MP)
Found a small, helpful and understanding pharmacy tucked in a housing estate, attached to a GP surgery.....10 miles away.....but so helpful
Wishing you luck sorting it out. I know how important it is.
I had a very similar response last month, for my 25mcgr tablets (I take 125, but they had other 100mcgr tablets), at a Lloyds branch. I eventually went to another pharmacy to have it filled.
I have another script in the pipes right now. if I can't get it filled, but the pharmacy have other denominations manufactured by someone else, I might consider asking my GP to prescribe a one-off prescription of whatever size I can get and invest in a pill cutter.
That's obviously not a long terms solutionas supplies could very month-on-month, but just trying to think outside the box a bit.
You could take a 75mcg and a 50mcg to male up the 125mcg if you can get these strengths in your brand - save you having to cut these tiny tablets x
I phoned Barnstaple Devon. They have supplies , they are the supplier of Actavis .
I guess manufactured there also .
Hi boots are supplying me morningside with no problems.
Thanks. I think it’s down to local stores . Maybe more hypos where I live 😚
It’s just that they said they only have what is sent . I saw their supply draw full of the Teva brand ,
I think I may get help. 10 miles away from where I live , seems to be an independent pharmacist.
Not good 😕
This is what I have never been able to understand. We know that medication has fillers in them to make them stable and also to bulk them up and we know that we can be sensitive to some so we need to change brands until we find one that we can tolerate well. But by definition a pharmacist should know this and that it is essential we get the type/make of medication that will do this to keep us well! Plus different brands could be different potency so that's not good either. To me it's common sense that we should stick to a brand that suits us so why can't the so called experts see this?
Plus if the doctor asks for it they should be sourcing it.
I would also suggest if you are having to go out of your way to get what you need then the GP should give you a script for two lots to help you more. In my early days I used to get 3 months at a time but sadly that doesn't seem to be the norm now.
Thanks I will ask GP as I only get 1 month at a time .
It’s the way these chemist stores earn money now. Source cheap charge NHS tax payers top brand price .
No scruples left .
I remember a tv prog years ago . An interviewer went out in the street and asked random questions of passers by .
One time the question was “Where can I get scruples” and someone thought maybe the hardware store down the road .
Fits the bill now !
Well if you are working or have family ties it's a long way to go to get your medication! A few years ago now I had a badly broken wrist and so couldn't drive for 4 months. A round trip to either the pharmacy or the doctor took up to 3 hours, not good when in a lot of pain but I had to change buses en route. Eventually the pharmacy said they would deliver! Made a huge different. In fact they still do as I'm now at the age they would do it anyway!
Yes it is . Thanks for your input though .
As u say we can’t always be independent .
If things don’t change then it will be a problem for me in the long run .
Wishes to u SF
I go to Boots. They have it written down 'no Teva'. I was told they could request certain brands to a point, as they have had a lot of people having problems with the brand. Only Boots that have been good about my request though in all honesty. Give them another go or possibly find another Boots store further a field. Personally I'd travel to get what I needed. Best wishes x
Thanks for your suggestion, I will try another Boots. Maybe the staff wee having a bad day. There was another chap nearby obviously complaining about something as well to another member of staff !
I hope you have more luck. I heard your comments by my local chemist for 2 years - same ingredients, you get what you get etc. Completely rude staff but I didn't know otherwise. Someone suggested I pick up my prescription and take it somewhere else. I know that the Boots I use, has a new chemist (young chap) who is very attentive and eager to discuss brands etc. Maybe I just got lucky, but they have been very professional and made every effort to get the brands I needed for ivf and Levo. Wishing you all the best. x
Good for you. It is a shame some can’t be bothered .
Some may people may not be as able to sort out .
I have raised the issue with my MP he is taking this to the Minister involved .
I am in correspondence with his secretary who is very good at responding to me.
I feel like a dog with a bone now .
Boots hoagie sold to a French company and Lloyd’s to a German one. Or maybe the other way round .
People power has got to halt this
A lot of money is made by those at the top. !
Lloyds was part of Celesio (German), in turn, part of the USA giant McKesson. Also, AAH (distributors) are part of the group.
We are f****d I m afraid. Seems like no where to turn. What can be done. We should try!
Feel for you SBM can only send a hug.😘
Bet none of ‘them’ would even buy a brand of soap that brought them out in a itchy rash ( happens for some people ) let alone a medicine that harms or doesn’t work.
Having had the Teva debacle last month, I've just had a variation on the theme today.
I went to pick up my script and there was lots of rummaging through piles of prescriptions, name checking, name spelling checking (both my names are unusual, so another person of the same name would be incredibly unlikely), lots of looking over the tops of cupboards at me.
I had sat down to wait, as it was obviously going to be a while. The assistant stuck her head out from the dispensing area and asked what drugs I was waiting for. Those other customers in packed shop obviously had their lives enhanced by learning I take Levothyroxine. I was so miffed, I felt like saying it was my usualy cream for that nasty communicable disease and scratch like mad. Really not professional.
Eventually the pharmacist came out with my package and gave it to me, but it was shifty, shifty, shifty.
I opened the package there and then and the 25mcgr are Teva. I was so incensed, but having had a hard day, I couldn't face the argument.
When I got home, I checked the copy script in the package which states not to dispense TEVA, so they're going back tomorrow.
Frankly, I feel they knew they were dispensing wrongly, and that's why they couldn't look me in the eye.
It's just not good enough.
[/ rant over ]
Following on from the above post, I went back to the pharmacy today to see what the pharmacist had to say about the misdispensing.
She denied knowing anything about it and blamed it on my Doc. She stated they only look at the actual prescription, not the repeat request chitty we have returned when we pick up our meds. She stated the prescription itself obviously didn't have the "No TEVA" on it. My counter was that surely the repeat chitty is just a replay of the dispensed script, else by definition it wouldn't be a repeat.
After much pushing back and forth of my prescribed meds; she urging me to pick them up and push off, and I urging her to own resolving the issue, she eventually she agreed to take back the misdispensed meds and print off the dispensed script, so that I could try to have it filled elsewhere.
When the script was handed to me, the repeat chitty for what had been "erroneously" dispensed was on top of the script covering it. I knew exactly what I would see when I looked. I was right, the script stated not to dispense TEVA on both lines (100mcgr and 25mcgr). I looked her in her shifty, eye ontact avoiding eyes and said,.... "Hmmmmm."
Needless to say I have popped onto SystmOnline and changed pharmacies. I can cope with an error. I can cope with the inability to source something from time to time, bit what I will not tolerate is to be deliberately (in my view) misled or treated like a child.
Many say pharmacies cannot change the contents of a prescription bag, once you have left the pharmacy. Quite clearly they can.
Blood tests
Hydrocortisone - is this normal?
Appointment as aspected 😢
Have you been so let down that you've changed GP Practice ?
