Sneaky GP, part 2

[Polo22]

Well following on from previous,

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Practice Manager assured me my prescription was reinstated, I ordered Saturday 150 mcg daily .

I had noticed that under current medication it hadn't been reinstated but checked and as far as I could see I had ordered 150 mcg daily.

Got a phone call this A.M Practice Manager saying Sneaky GP wanted a phone consultation with me this P.M , wasn't keen but agreed.

So she was basically trying to convince me that I had given her the impression I had accepted reduction and couldn't see what the problem was.

I told her verbatim what had been discussed and that I realised we covered a lot of ground but that is why I summarised several times what we had agreed.

She had wanted a 50mcg reduction 4 days week, I didn't. So after a lot of discussion I agreed to go to 125mcg a day on the understanding I still get 50mcg tabs , explained my brand don't do 25mcg and others don't agree with me. I specifically said I don't want packets opened and fiddled with , gives me the ick, so we agreed I would get 2 months supply when ordering, 2 packs 100mcg, and 1 of 50mcg. She didn't know different brands can affect people differently. Kept saying I was obviously overmedicated as TSH was supressed, I again tried to explain T3, failed miserably.

Picked up the meds I had ordered Saturday , they had been fiddled with , there is only one months supply 28 100's and 14 50's. Fuming, couldn't understand how. So obviously Sneaky Gp strikes again. What she doesn't know is, I was already dropping to 125mcg, to try to stop these silly conversations, about suppressed TSH. Last TSH 0.01,FT4 21.6 . I'll let her think she got one over on me, she wanted reduction of 200mcg per week I was nice and gave her 175 mcg per week.

As we would say in Liverpool "she has pi**ed on her chips" , I will wait till end of the week and ask for a print out of records from when I picked up all of them the other week till now. Go through it with a fine tooth comb and any and all discrepancies will be noted, reported and change requested and if I have to do that this time I will also report to their Trusts DPO, I could literally her her eyes rolling whenever I tried to inform her of the facts.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Print these links out to give her on different brands affecting patients

Government guidelines for GP in support of patients if you find it difficult/impossible to change brands

gov.uk/drug-safety-update/l...

If a patient reports persistent symptoms when switching between different levothyroxine tablet formulations, consider consistently prescribing a specific product known to be well tolerated by the patient.

If symptoms or poor control of thyroid function persist (despite adhering to a specific product), consider prescribing levothyroxine in an oral solution formulation.

academic.oup.com/jcem/artic...

Physicians should: 1) alert patients that preparations may be switched at the pharmacy; 2) encourage patients to ask to remain on the same preparation at every pharmacy refill; and 3) make sure patients understand the need to have their TSH retested and the potential for dosing readjusted every time their LT4 preparation is switched (18).

And here

pharmacymagazine.co.uk/clin...

Discussed here too

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Netherlands (and Germany?) guidelines are for thyroid patients to always get same brand levothyroxine at each prescription

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[waveylines]

Well done for trying. Expression of "you can drag a wild horse to water but can't make them drink" comes to mind. Do you have to see her. Is there another GP in the practise?I had a big run in with one of my GPs who I avoided ever since. He retired but cNe back & ended up with an appointment with him. I was dreading it but he was lovely and actually he had taken on board all that I had said.... I guess he just needed time. So send the links that Slow Dragon sent. Then leave her to absorb or not. And if poss see someone else.

[Polo22]

GP surgery are insisting they have sent script for 2 months supply on 4th November, say it's pharmacy's fault. Pharmacy say all they got was script for what they supplied, called Gp's again while in pharmacy, they insist it's not their mistake , pharmacy printed out copies for me of the script the received on the 4th, to wave at GP surgery, give me strength. Found out they recently employed a pharmacist in surgery, wonder if it's their handiwork

[Popscicle in reply to Polo22]

I have had this exact same problem with my pain killer patches. I always got 2m supply. In August I request and received an additional 2w supply because the batch for August weren’t sticking. Since then each month when I request a 1 month script I receive a 2w supply. In my case it’s the prescribing team at fault. When they receive my request they are clicking on acute prescriptions (a once only script) for a2w supply instead of clicking from the repeat list which is a 1m supply. I’ve been driven as mad as you sound and yet again todays script was wrong and I’ve had to write yet another complaint to the prescribe team. Last week I spoke to the surgery’s pharmacist who said she would sort everything and clearly she hasn’t!

[Polo22 in reply to Popscicle]

I called into pharmacy yesterday to collect Azithromycin for youngest. Pharmacy staff said they had the correct script sent over that afternoon . Great I thought, but when checking the 2 months supply was Teva, , I refused to take it told them it had to be Accord. New or different Pharmacist, haven't had this problem for quite some time. Heard her saying to staff "tell her it's exactly the same medication", I shouted back No it is not exactly the same, even NICE guidelines recognise not all formulations suit all patients and advise to continue on a brand that is well tolerated. She reluctantly agreed to take back the Teva, they are ordering me some Accord and heard her say to staff to add a note to me name "Accord ONLY" so result,

[Popscicle in reply to Polo22]

But what a palava! At least your sorted now! However, it sounds like they breached your confidentiality if they were shouting instructions at each other about you!

I’m still waiting to see if my concern re the pain killer patches gets sorted!