Getting my prescription early from Doctor

fierystormcloud

I would make an appointment with the GP. When my neighbour tried to get a certain drug early the Thursday before last, the receptionist and prescription clerk flat out refused to give her a prescription early (she had basically lost a strip of the tablets, (16 tablets,) so she was trying to get another one written out a week early.)

So she ended up ringing the emergency doctor at 10pm on the Saturday night, and said she had ran out. They sent a prescription for a strip of 16 to Tesco pharmacy for her to collect the next day. (This was 8 days supply.) Then on the Wednesday, she put the prescription in at the doctors.

Waste of the emergency doctor's time, but if the receptionist and prescription clerk say no, I would ring the emergency doctor on a Friday or Saturday night. It worked for my neighbour.

VfM4meplse

fierystormcloud wrote: »

Waste of the emergency doctor's time, but if the receptionist and prescription clerk say no, I would ring the emergency doctor on a Friday or Saturday night. It worked for my neighbour.

A complete waste of NHS resources.

If the front-end team at the survey refuse (very unlikely if you spell out the circumstances), you should tell them that the out of hours service is your only option. (Don't exercise the threat, though!). Its not down to the admin staff, it's for the doctor to make the clinical decision.

As for computer systems not being over-ridden :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Flugelhorn

fierystormcloud wrote: »

I would make an appointment with the GP. When my neighbour tried to get a certain drug early the Thursday before last, the receptionist and prescription clerk flat out refused to give her a prescription early (she had basically lost a strip of the tablets, (16 tablets,) so she was trying to get another one written out a week early.)

So she ended up ringing the emergency doctor at 10pm on the Saturday night, and said she had ran out. They sent a prescription for a strip of 16 to Tesco pharmacy for her to collect the next day. (This was 8 days supply.) Then on the Wednesday, she put the prescription in at the doctors.

Waste of the emergency doctor's time, but if the receptionist and prescription clerk say no, I would ring the emergency doctor on a Friday or Saturday night. It worked for my neighbour.

Out of hours advised not to do sleeping tablets scripts.
In our practice we often do scripts (of various meds) early if people are going on holiday.

Georgiegirl256

VfM4meplse wrote: »

A complete waste of NHS resources.

If the front-end team at the survey refuse (very unlikely if you spell out the circumstances), you should tell them that the out of hours service is your only option. (Don't exercise the threat, though!). Its not down to the admin staff, it's for the doctor to make the clinical decision.

As for computer systems not being over-ridden :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Exactly. That is not what it's there for.

It's not up to the receptionist to say no, and if they had any sense, they would have ran it past the doctor first before turning down the request.

Robisere

Prescriptions for my wife and myself are all repeated online, there is a 7-day block before each med can be ordered. We registered for this service 3 years ago and it is (supposed to be) very easy: routine is, access the website, login with username & password, click "Prescriptions" then "Current medication". Tick the boxes of the medication required, that is it. Or should be. I will explain.

I have a stoma as the result of bowel disease and removal of a large part of bowel in 2009. I have 2 other routine prescriptions, but the stoma pouches and associated equipment, are not a medicine or tablet that I can 'miss' one day or two. I need them there when I have ordered them and they are despatched from a specialised supplier by courier, usually Parcelforce. Over the last 15 months, since the dispensary was "reorganised" I have had FIVE instances of my stoma orders going astray. In the end I was forced to make an official NHS complaint and the dispensary website was renewed, the ordering process made simpler and plainer. I suggested how to do this with the help of my grandson, a computer networking engineer. I can now order my medicines exactly as I like them, with details of how each is either collected or delivered, but it really angered me: why should I have to go through all this hassle?

The attitude of the dispensary staff was unbelievably hostile and I needed the support of my long-time GP to overcome their hostility and inertia. Two of them were replaced. I then took the step of having my scrips redirected to a Pharmacy in town - anyone can do that, you do not have to use the Surgery dispensary.

VFM4 you are correct, the systems can be and are overridden, but as for seeing a GP, we can only do that by advance booking here. However, all our local surgeries have banded together to rotate work at a special clinic out of hours and at weekends, and we are positively encouraged to go there.

Mr_Toad

It sounds like some people have dreadful surgery staff.

It is perfectly acceptable to get prescriptions in advance, I do it regularly from spring to autumn when I go away on the boat.

I'm sometimes away for three to four months and need to take enough drugs with me to last the length of the cruise. I visit the surgery and tell the receptionist what I'm doing and they sort it out. My GP is more than happy to issue prescriptions for me.

And we're not talking about everyday stuff like statins and blood pressure tablets. I have a rare neurological disease, no cure but can be managed. My medication is complex and some of it is very expensive. You can't just walk into a pharmacy and pick some up, they have to order it in and most have never dispensed it before.

KxMx

OP as advised earlier I think the best way for you would be to make a phone appointment with a GP.

If they are dubious about issuing extra sleeping tablets, do you have proof of holiday you could offer them?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

It's easier to speak to the doctor first, as these are medications that can be abused (and are, even by people who initially take them for perfectly good reasons), so admin staff can get into a lot of trouble if they put through requests and it's found out later that there has been problems/misuse.

susan1

Funnily enough I have just to day picked up a prescription for 3 months of medication which included night sedation. I jusi put a covering letter in with my script and there was no problem.

pigpen

If it has been a repeat for a while ask the pharmacy to loan you some in lieu of your next prescription.. ours are utterly fine with this.. just explain the situation.