Problem with Eyedrops

tesuhoha

We don't know about dealing with doctors because as a family we never go. We've been with them 6 years and I've only been twice to see a doctor in that time.

jenhug

Sadly I have many health issues, so I get to know who to see for whatever medical ailment I am suffering from that week! They all seem to have their areas of interest, I started out by asking the receptionist who was best for say, depression, and would see a doctor for that, but if it was a physical issue, I would see someone else. Now the GP I have seems to be good at it all and I think the world of her. Hopefully you will be able to find a good GP at the surgery and you will be able to stick with them. Definitely make a complaint in the order I have suggested. Good luck.

tesuhoha

jenhug wrote: »

Sadly I have many health issues, so I get to know who to see for whatever medical ailment I am suffering from that week! They all seem to have their areas of interest, I started out by asking the receptionist who was best for say, depression, and would see a doctor for that, but if it was a physical issue, I would see someone else. Now the GP I have seems to be good at it all and I think the world of her. Hopefully you will be able to find a good GP at the surgery and you will be able to stick with them. Definitely make a complaint in the order I have suggested. Good luck.

Thank you. I will compose a letter tomorrow and send it to the practice manager.

jenhug

Good. Just try and stick to the basic facts in the letter and try not to bring emotions into it, they will be more interested in the facts at this point and you can discuss how it made your husband feel when you have a meeting with the practice manager.

floss2

tesuhoha wrote: »

......the doctor said that the pharmacist had made a mistake and he should have been prescribed two sets of drops.....

OP, perhaps you should consider a complaint to the pharmacists too?

barbiedoll

Go back to the pharmacist and ask to see the original prescription. They will probably still have it, they don't get sent away until the end of the month. Ask if you can have a photocopy of it, they may not let you take the script away with you but they should be able to arrange for a copy to be made.

If there should have been two lots of eyedrops prescribed, they will show as two separate items on the script. The pharmacist may have made a mistake but it sounds as though the doctor didn't prescribe the correct drops in the first place. Lots of eyedrops have similar packaging, I'm not making excuses for the GP but if she is not an eye specialist, it may have been a genuine mistake. Even so, she shouldn't have dismissed your husband's symptoms nor your concerns that the drops were incorrect.

Can you tell us what the original drops were called and what the active ingredients are? Many glaucoma patients are prescribed two or more drops for their condition, possibly the drops that your husband received at the hospital were "hospital only" items, they may not be easily available via a GP.

And definitely complain about the GP, mistakes happen but her attitude leaves a lot to be desired.

tesuhoha

barbiedoll wrote: »

Go back to the pharmacist and ask to see the original prescription. They will probably still have it, they don't get sent away until the end of the month. Ask if you can have a photocopy of it, they may not let you take the script away with you but they should be able to arrange for a copy to be made.

If there should have been two lots of eyedrops prescribed, they will show as two separate items on the script. The pharmacist may have made a mistake but it sounds as though the doctor didn't prescribe the correct drops in the first place. Lots of eyedrops have similar packaging, I'm not making excuses for the GP but if she is not an eye specialist, it may have been a genuine mistake. Even so, she shouldn't have dismissed your husband's symptoms nor your concerns that the drops were incorrect.

Can you tell us what the original drops were called and what the active ingredients are? Many glaucoma patients are prescribed two or more drops for their condition, possibly the drops that your husband received at the hospital were "hospital only" items, they may not be easily available via a GP.

And definitely complain about the GP, mistakes happen but her attitude leaves a lot to be desired.

The drops that he got from the hospital were called DuoTrav. The ones from the doctor were called Travatan. Even if they prescribed Timolol with them now, he wouldn't use the Travatan because the severity of the reaction has frightened him. Perhaps you might say that he could put the Timolol in first but then what if he accidentally put two drops of Travatan in his eye? Also, he is getting double the dose of Travoprost if he has to put two drops in his eyes. At least the DuoTrav are balanced so that if they are overdosed, which has happened, he wouldn't have such a reaction.

I don't know what we will do if it is the case that the doctor can't prescribe DuoTrav but I have written the letter of complaint and am posting it this afternoon. I will take your advice about the prescription.

Incidentally, the DuoTrav is in stock in the pharmacy opposite the surgery so I would have thought they could prescribe it as its prescription only.

barbiedoll

I'm not familiar with DuoTrav but the internet shows that it became widely available in 2007/2008, which is after I stopped working in pharmacy. If this preparation is what the hospital have prescribed then the GP should have written the script for this exact item, not two separate items (if she actually did that, which is in doubt anyway)

I haven't got a current copy of the British National Formulary at home so I can't look up the price for you at the moment, but you could try contacting your hospital's medicines information department (part of the pharmacy team) and ask them if they could check the prices of the eyedrops for you. Not that it has any relevance but if there is a large difference in price, it may explain why the GP tried to fob you off with Travatan instead. Separate eyedrops were the usual treatment when I was working in a hospital pharmacy but if your local chemist is stocking DuoTrav, it is clearly a normal prescription item and there is no reason why your husband shouldn't have it.

Let us know how you get on with your complaint. Hope your husband is feeling better.

tesuhoha

barbiedoll wrote: »

I'm not familiar with DuoTrav but the internet shows that it became widely available in 2007/2008, which is after I stopped working in pharmacy. If this preparation is what the hospital have prescribed then the GP should have written the script for this exact item, not two separate items (if she actually did that, which is in doubt anyway)

I haven't got a current copy of the British National Formulary at home so I can't look up the price for you at the moment, but you could try contacting your hospital's medicines information department (part of the pharmacy team) and ask them if they could check the prices of the eyedrops for you. Not that it has any relevance but if there is a large difference in price, it may explain why the GP tried to fob you off with Travatan instead. Separate eyedrops were the usual treatment when I was working in a hospital pharmacy but if your local chemist is stocking DuoTrav, it is clearly a normal prescription item and there is no reason why your husband shouldn't have it.

Let us know how you get on with your complaint. Hope your husband is feeling better.

Thank you very much. My husband managed to find the prices of the two eyedrops on an online chemist and DuoTrav was about £18, not a lot more than Travatan. I am wondering if DuoTrav was prescribed because it was lesser strength because he only has the very early stages of glaucoma. Only a guess.

Anyway, he has been fine since Tuesday morning and the DuoTrav did not have any negative effect at all. I am going to telephone the pharmacy tomorrow to tell them the doctor said they made an error and to ask to see the prescription.

My husband does not think they would have made a mistake because he thinks all pharmacists are very good:) and they double check everything. I sent the letter of complaint off today.

Incidentally, DuoTrav is also in stock in the local Asda where we got it from last night.

barbiedoll

Pharmacists do make mistakes as well! (They do usually own up to them though!)

Most GP scripts are now printed off in the surgery. A GP will type in the first few letters of the drug name and a list will come up on his/her screen. They then select which item they want and the dosage, amount to be dispensed and the duration of treatment.
It can be very easy to select the incorrect item, there may be 10 or more items under any drug name, including different strengths, different pack sizes , different brands etc etc. It can be easy to make a mistake but that doesn't excuse what happened afterwards.
Your husband's reaction to the drug may be "rare" but that is all the more reason for the GP to take notice of it, I wonder if she reported it, I'm guessing not.

Let me know how you get on with this and if you manage to get a copy of the original script, let me know how it was written, feel free to PM me.

PS.....don't tell the pharmacist that the doctor says that he/she made a mistake, just in case it was a pharmacist error, they may say that they "can't find it" or "no longer have it". Most pharmacists wouldn't dream of covering up an error but you never know!