I’m not one to normally knock the NHS as they do a terrific service BUT…
My lovely local chemist usually orders all my mums tablets on a repeat prescription every month and I just pop down to collect them.
This all stops though as the NHS has decided that the chemist is wasting money by requesting
unnecessary medication and I’m now forced to have to order it all myself either by dropping a request into the doctors or ordering them online.
Seems a easy thing really but when your rushed off your feet and can’t easily leave the house it was one less job to fret over. Now imagine if your elderly. How on earth are they expected to deal with this new change ??
Why oh why do they have to mess with things ? We where not wasting any medication. The chemist was only ordering what the Dr had prescribed.
This from the very same NHS that limits my mum to just two Pull up Incontinent pads a day because of the cost. How many times do you go for a wee in day ? Now imagine your incontinent and we are lucky to make lunchtime before using our daily rations !!
This is the same NHS that refused to use tablets I had brought in to hospital once for my mum as they ONLY had a month left of the use by date ( yet she could have taken them if she was at home)
Nothing makes sense any more !!! And they wonder why carers are so stressed and confused dot com
I have a different surgery to my husband - I order his medication monthly via the phone from his chemist.
My Surgery has decided that we have to drop off the repeat pescription a week before needed - I order ONE thing a month - thyroid pills. This means I have to walk down - 10 mins each way to drop it off and then again a week later to collect. I am a carer so I find it quite stressful too. I could do it online BUT they need a driving license, (I do not drive) or a bus pass with photograph on (no old enough) or a passport (passport from old address and expired years ago). So at the moment I cannot sign up for online repeats.
I too wonder why they have done this as it is is a lot of stress for me to have to do 2 journeys instead of 1. I will take a taxi if the weather is really bad but chemist often busy and it does mean asking them to wait and some leave meter ticking.
The Royal College of General Practitioners has written a guide for GP’s about identifying and helping carers. When I get a moment I’m going to print off a copy and give it to my own practice. I suggest you both do the same!
I’m frantically busy today, maybe Chris our “librarian” will put a link on for you? (Thanks in advance Chris)
I’ve got a couple of thoughts to add: my wife has about fourteen different meds, yes 14 !! Things do often go wrong which has given me some insight as to how the system works here, (although I’m still often not sure).
The GP prescribes x y & z, they send that (electronically I’ve always been told - but possibly it’s just email) to the pharmacy. On the appointed date I go and collect it, although we’ve learnt to phone and check that it’s actually ready - and even then sometimes it’s not.
When I collect the prescription, there is a repeat form along with it, I can tick all the right boxes on that form and then wait for the next month’s issue date and collect again.
With regard to the photo ID, I was told I needed to provide one to sign up to what here is called “System Online”, it allows me to order meds, book appointments, check on test results etc etc. I don’t have any photo ID, no passport and no photo DL, just the old paper one - I can’t remember what they requested instead, I think it was my driving licence but the point is, no photo ID was really necessary. A utility bill should usually be sufficient if it’s your regular surgery.
Yes the procedure is that when you collect the latest batch of medication and your standing in the chemist you used to be able to tick the boxes on the tear off part of the prescription and hand them back to the chemist and HE puts the request in for you.
Apparently too many people where just ticking all the boxes without physical checking at home what extra meds they have.
Now you must take the slips away with you, fill them in correctly and then take them directly to the doctors yourself or order it yourself online. The chemist are not allowed to do it for you.
They believe people where stockpiling medication ( maybe in readiness for Brexit lol)
So like naughty children we must go home with our little slips of paper and check our medication stocks and fill in the boxes correctly.
I know for a fact that I have a whole months spare medication in a cupboard that I date rotate. The reason I have this stash is EVERYTIME my mother who has Parkinson’s dementia goes into hospital they do not supply her medication to the ward on time meaning she misses set time doses of her Parkinson’s medication which has resulted in her having to be sedated to calm her down.
It’s just plain stupid this change…and as always it done to save money
Hi,
Our GP wants photo evidence of ID for before registering for the online service too. Problematic for S and I too. S has been at the Practice since 2000, I have been at it for 30 years … The grumpy receptionists recognise us … We still order by ticking the boxes etc Comm sense out the window… Though S has actually got a Passport now, so next time he goes, we could if he hadn’t had to wait too long register for the service.
We have lots of hassle with c*ck ups. Pharmacist blames GP, GP blames pharmacist etc
On a plus though, S gets a 56 day supply each time. I too keep and rotate stock as due to delays and incompetence you can’t rely on getting the next lots of meds in a timely manner.
It was in my local paper, the NHS are wasting thousands paying for paracetemal which is available anyway for 20p, cough medicines and other basic medicines available from supermarkets.
And often medicine is prescribed and not taken, this can happen for years and ends up with a big amount of wasted medication, it cannot be reissued and has to be destroyed also costing money.
Our GP has limited it so you can only order 5 items at a time, but one of my carees has diabetes, and has 17 items a month, insulin, testing strips, 2 lots of diabetes tablets, another injection plus tablets for their other conditions.
A few times has been close to running out, of course with diabetes you need your medication every day.
Yesterday was the last straw. I went into our pharmacy at about 15:30, queued for a full 20 minutes and asked for my wife’s prescription. We’ve nothing for you. You last collected one on the 9th January - Yes, I know, that’s why I’m here today one month later.
“We’ve had nothing from the GP surgery”. I go to the GP surgery next door. “We’ve had no request for your wife’s prescription”. The Request is obviously the repeat forms that I hand into the Pharmacy a couple of days after collecting the prescription. I do not ever forget to do this and most certainly remember doing it in January.
Back to the surgery, "I’ll send a repeat prescription as an emergency and you can pick it up this evening after 17:45. Back I go at 17:45, and queue for another ten minutes - no there’s nothing ready - off to the PC screen and the paperwork to check: “Yes. we’ve got that - we can do it now if you wait”. Of course when it’s presented to me 15 minutes later, the one signed for item is missing as it can’t be sent electronically, so now I have to go through the whole rigmarole again on Friday.
I’ve now collected that item and changed the Pharmacy that we’ll use in the future, I can’t continue to endure their incompetence.
We had a similar issue with my mums Warfarin. They would only issue a new prescription on me delivering a copy of her INR score we received after every blood test. I started to email them a copy if I couldn’t get to the surgery but they informed me that I must telephone them to tell them I’m sending a email as they don’t always read them…!
One day in frustration I said to them that I thought information was supposed to be shared now between medical staff and departments.
They then realised that they could actually access the INR score directly from the Hospital.
Finally…they got there act together and one less job for me to do
and confused 
dot com