"Repeat Prescriptions"

I get a repeat prescription every month due to many chronic illnesses. It is now a lot of medicines to keep track of.  I keep running out of my Beta Blocker. Perhaps someone should have noticed that only 28 are prescribed per month, the other meds are 30 days.  This explains why I keep running out.

The surgery policy is to put in your prescription request 5 working days before needed.  I put mine in on the Thursday.  Ran out of Beta Blockers on the Monday.  By Tuesday no prescription had arrived at the Pharmacy.  I rang the surgery and they told me to speak to the Dispensary, but I would have to visit as they have no phone!  I'm disabled.  So.  I waddled round there, to find the Dispensary staff too hot, in a bad mood.  The member of staff I spoke to told me it would be no bother for me to go without my beta blocker for a couple more days.  I am aghast! It is not OK to stop taking a beta blocker abruptly.

If you ring 111 you can get an emergency prescription very quickly.  So I suggested the Dispensary might get me a small amount of the beta blocker.   But oh no, they did not want to do that.  Did I huff a bit about this?  Yes.  I told them they ought to have a phone, because elderly and disabled patients are going to find having to visit them a bit much.   Apparently they did not appreciate the criticism because I've been sent a letter accusing me of being abusive.  I did not shout or swear, but here we are. It seems you cannot say bad things about the only GP surgery in the village! You will be punished!

I don't really know how any surgery can request a 5 day turn around for prescriptions in this day and age.  Despite this, they usually do it very quickly.  But not on this occasion. Nope.

It seems they don't appreciate that when people are ill and on a lot of medicines, it becomes rather easy to run out of something.  We do our best!  Unfortunately I have some DIY tasks to do in the home, and this meant I took my eye off how many meds I had left.  It is very tiring for me to do this type of thing now, I was exhausted, of course.

So I went home and rang 111.  Literally within seconds I had 7 days worth of beta blockers.  And a nice, friendly lady on the phone who actually had some sympathy.