"Time wasted when injection meds didn't arrive"

My mother-in-law was left in tears after attending the second appointment in two weeks (5/3 & 12/3) to receive an injection for osteoporosis (a six-monthly requirement). On both occasions, the injection medicine had not arrived. Today, staff informed her the order was made on 27/2 and must have been 'mis-read' by the recipient. The excuse last week was similar. Apparently, it will be chased and staff have made another appointment for 20/3, which is a Wednesday. Mum had also attended earlier to have a blood test in preparation for the injection.

As Mum is elderly and disabled, just getting to the surgery is an issue and she must rely on assistance. She books appointments for Tuesdays, as the people running the community bus collect her and one pushes her in a wheelchair to the surgery. He waits whilst she has the appointment. Despite informing staff (and on other numerous occasions) that Tuesday is the only convenient day she can attend, the appointment was booked for next Wednesday, even though there is no guarantee the prescription will be there.

There are several issues here.

1. About an hour ago, I telephoned to speak with the Practice Manager and was informed I will probably have to put the complaint in writing before she will look at it, despite the issue being urgent.

2. The medication was only ordered after Mum's diary note prompted her to contact the surgery to ask when she would receive the injection. Why must patient's remind the surgery to order medications? Surely, there is a system for this?

3. Why was the medication not chased last week? If the distributor 'mis-read' the prescription, I am certain they would have treated the matter as urgent when notified by the surgery.

4. This is the most important issue. Why does no one at the surgery monitor the medications to marry up with appointments? For sporadic injections such as this, there should be a system to check the medication is there when the patient is attending the appointment. Not only did Mum suffer the exertion and inconvenience of attending for two aborted appointments, the surgery could have cancelled and allocated them to two other patients. All it required was a check on the medication and a call to Mum to cancel and explain the medication had not arrived.

Whilst I have been typing this, Mum's Dr has called to apologise for which I thank him. He has however asked her to ring the surgery on Thursday to check if the medication has arrived. I still question why the onus to check must lie with the patient? I will have to assume it is due to NHS cut-backs. The problem of having to attend next Wednesday still remains, however. Perhaps staff should check on other medications they are awaiting, as they may find they can cancel someone else's appointment for next Tuesday and allocate it to Mum!