"Changed medication"

Dear Adrian

As explained in our subsequent phone call, the switch of medication from a generic medication to a branded one took place under the direction of the Norfolk-wide prescribing regime, as an imposed change under the Scriptswitch protocols. These protocols are designed to save NHS funding, for more use in expanding the work that the NHS is increasingly providing to an aging and expanding population. The financial target for medication change savings for Norwich alone is £1.63m in this current financial year, and may involve switching from a branded medicine to a generic one or vice versa.

Indeed, NHS England has highlighted in the past that this switch happens from time to time for cost reasons; detailing that 'if the name on your prescription keeps changing' it might be a switch that has taken place.

There are hundreds of changes across a range of medications each month, all designed to give the taxpayer a better use of their national funding for the NHS, and it would be impossible to contact, by phone, letter or even text message, all of the patients under these Norfolk-wide instigated changes.

I am not sure who you spoke to at the CCG, as I have been unable to track down the individual, but, absolutely, the local CCG and the relevant staff involved across Norfolk, all understand that for the savings to be implemented at the highest level, we are unable to undertake to contact the hundreds of patients impacted here in any given month of Scriptswitch changes.

The On-Call GP, and indeed all the practice staff, undertake to be as communicative with patients as possible; hence my undertaking on the original call of 9am. The fact that this callback from somebody had not been made by the early afternoon of that same day is understandable from our perspective, knowing the daily pressures on the surgery, but maybe not so obvious from a patient perspective.

To cover your point on the receptionists, although they are very well trained in what they do, they are simply not all expected to be pharmacy assistants or prescription administrators; we have a dedicated prescription administrator at the practice, and your query would have been passed to them for action later that day.

I am sorry that you feel we fell short of your expectations on this occasion, and, as discussed in our subsequent phone conversation, I do hope the exploration of the situation on the phone has covered the points you raise. I am glad that the On-Call Doctor was able to switch you back to the requested medication, overriding the financial aspect for your own personal care reasons.

Ian Wilson

Practice Manager