Social services has said my mum needs meds in dosette box for them to make sure she has them at the correct time, GP has said we have to go to particular pharmacies for that, the two pharmacies are full up and not taking anymore people on the boxes. So the GP now refuses to fund the boxes from her current pharmacy, social services says this is a medical issue and not social but they are willing to help by reminding her to take them from a pharmacy dosette box but GP will not allow. What are we supposed to do.
I’m not a massive expert on this but you can go to any pharmacy who will make the boxes up. We used one in town rather then our local chemist. The only issue would be if the out of town won’t deliver so if your able to collect the boxes ?
My mums medication changed so much as they tweaked her dosage the care company now administer the medication from original manufacturers packaging which is kept safely away from my mum so no chance of her helping herself
Lastly who are you speaking to at the GP surgery…I only ask as many a time I did battle with a GP receptionist but when talking directly to her GP I got the answers and help I needed.
I can cope with the caring part of the job but not the politics like your experiencing - stay strong and keep pushing
We have been dealing with ss and enablement, and GP is bloody rude, accusing my mother of attention seeking. I filled her auto tablet machine and she had missed 5 evening doses in 10 days, they want us to put a medicine cabinet in her flat, there is nowhere we can put one and bolt it down. She is on an enormous amount of medications, it would need to be a very large box she has about 20 different drugs a day and 3 puffers also extra spare antibiotics and prednislone and movicol, eye drops, pain patches. The chemists are all saying they do not have capacity for her. The carers say they would dispense her drugs from the original packets it would take them I think 2 people one to check 45 mins to an hour per day at least as some are once per day some are 2 x and some are changed monthly. That means she would not be getting any social care as they would be out of their time. We are being sent round and round as they want us to buy this medicine cabinet and put the drugs in there, it waould be very expensive and if they could just do the dossett box it would fit in a much smaller space. I had my mother calling me twice yesterday complaining and saying she needed her GP as she was in so much pain. This is because she has missed so many pills. I am at the end of my tether.
The dosette boxes are i think it’s either £250 or £500 a year plus the extra time popping out all the tablets which as you say 20 different drugs a day, that would take a long time to prepare the dosette boxes.
If there is a town with a high elderly/disabled population, chemists are overwhelmed by requests for Dosette boxes, have to employ extra staff JUST to do the Dosette boxes.
My caree has 22 items on their prescription, she is totally confused so i help and yes it takes ages to pop out all the pills.
I bought a multi compartment box from the local diy store about 5 pound, and just label Mon Tues Wed etc.
Caree has a lockable cabinet at home, keeps passport, jewelry etc in anyway.
It is up to the Social Services and the GP to work together to ensure your mums wellbeing, like you say if your mum doesn’t take the tablets she will get ill.
I would say the District nurses team should be involved, helping with the medication, as you say there is a lot more than most patients.
Or if there is one the community care team who help looking after patients in their own home and can give extra support and liase with other healthcare staff.
Copied from my hospitals website:-
"Community Integrated Care, incorporating District Nursing and Therapy, is a universal service. It can be accessed by adults over 18 years old, who are housebound or require treatment at home.
Each team covers a geographical area and we work closely with GPs to provide community care with a multi-disciplinary team approach"
Your mum clearly needs a good care co ordinator who can sort out all the care issues without all the endless squabbles between Health Staff and Care Staff.
It is bad thinking because if your mum doesn’t get her medication will become ill and end up in hospital, thats what the NHS are trying to avoid people ending in hospital as it costs money- £500 a day for a hospital bed.
Whereabouts are you in the country, i can look up, see what services are available, provide a few links.
You can PM send me a message if you don’t want to reveal your home town
Hi Mum is in Kent, the carers will not pop out pills we have installed, we already bought mum a machine that lets out her pills, she is okay with the morning ones they remind her but they are refusing to attend her in the evening to tell her and make sure she takes the evenings ones. Her gp is most unhelpful accusing her of attention seeking, we are being given the run around. They want us to buy a medicine cabinet that locks, the sort we would need would be so big and need to be bolted down, she has about 20 drugs but there are eye drops and emergency medications and pain patch. Plus the puffers think there is 3 of them.
Carol,
the GP sounds a hindrance, can your Mum not see a different GP in the same practice, one who is more understanding and helpful?
Does your Mum have a care co-ordinator?
Would a second automated dispenser for the evening help? Could the warden ring her or pop in to remind her?
This document might be helpful:
Melly1
Is this any good?
We care for patients in their own homes, including residential homes, with the aim of ensuring they do not have to go into hospital unnecessarily. We look after people who are housebound and need nursing and carry out procedures including giving medicines, taking blood, changing dressings. We also provide end of life care.
We work closely with other agencies, such as out-of-hours and social care services and in many places operate 24-hours a day. In some parts of Kent we operate a rapid response service, which aims to assess patients quickly and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.
We provide intensive personalised care to patients with a complex long-term conditions so that they can stay safe and healthy at home or in their chosen environment and we provide rehabilitation to people aged 18 and over who need help to maintain and enhance their quality of life.
Telephone numbers through the link depending which part of Kent you are?
Thank you will have a look at these, the GP practice for some reason tries to make you deal with the persons own doctor. They are horrid, if you could see the email she sent me about my sister, then as soon as i asked her to visit mum she started on me. She is very uncaring and rude.
here is a copy of the email the GP sent me, my sister has never been rude, she just stands up to the doctor whom never wants to do home visits or tests. She was fine with me until i asked for a home visit then i got a phone call from her and she was horrid very rude and nasty, suggesting we should put her in a home. My mother has COPD, heart failure, kidney failure, osteoporosis, high blood pressure and dementia, yet she is not to be shielded?
Thank you for your e-mail.
The bottom-line is that we all want what is best for your mother, both during the current situation and in the future. What is important is that her exposure to any risk from Covid is minimised as much as possible; by virtue of her age alone she is in a high-risk group and of course her additional co-morbidities increase her risk further.
There are many elderly people in your mother’s situation, indeed my own 85-year old mum is one of them. Whilst they are being ‘shielded’, they do not fall into the strict categories listed in the Government shielding advice which includes patients who are for example immunosuppressed having had organ transplants. However I realise that this is to a degree semantics; sensible precautions to reduce exposure to C-19 underpin the advice to all at-risk groups.
I am pleased to be able to communicate directly with you; I’m afraid that I find your sister’s e-mails, letters and phone calls to be antagonistic and sometimes downright rude. This is not acceptable and I know that my staff find her approach upsetting. I have broader shoulders and am able to ‘stand up for myself’ but if she thinks that this approach is going to somehow improve your mother’s care, she is sadly mistaken.
I will care for your mother to the best of my ability; as I’m sure you are aware resources are not unlimited and she may not always be able to access the level of care to which you feel she should be entitled. I am not able to dictate to allied services the level of care that they provide.
I hope this provides you with a degree of reassurance regarding your mum’s care.
Best wishes,
Unfortunatly the situation is very common, there are limited resources, there is not a bottomless pit of money to provide the care so both GP help and Social Care help is limited.
Which of course isn’t much help to the patients and puts strain on the carers having to rush from house to house just not having the time to give proper care.
As the GP says despite multiple health issues, none of my carees received a letter but are very vulnerable to the corona virus, same with your mum.
Has anyone suggested CHC, Continued Health Care, it is a package of care provided for free by the NHS but again only if you qualify, there has to be a Health Need not Social care need.
Clearly your mums needs seem to be more health related.
Try the community nursing team, hopefully they can help find a solution.
And do not blame the GP, they are just overrun with requests for help, i was looking after my friend who was very ill, we had to phone at 8am for a home visit, at 8.02 , we were 37th in the queue, it would take up to 45 minutes waiting on the phone just to talk to someone.
I am so lucky my GP surgery are not like that at all. i have regular injections and blood tests and have had no problems at all. They have never been rude to me. My mothers gp only wants healthy patients, we did not choose these doctors but were made to have them.