"Delay in pain relief for my dying father"

My father was dying of cancer in a nursing home. The Sue Ryder nurse suggested to the doctor that my father would benefit from a morphine patch. At a meeting the following morning she asked him if this had been prescribed and he said that It had.

By 4 pm that day, the pharmacy still had not received the prescription. I called the surgery repeatedly but was told that if the doctor had said it had been done then it would have been done even though the receptionist could see nothing on my fathers record to show that it had been actioned. All the doctors were in a staff meeting so she could not talk to any of them. I decided the only way to get the pain relief for my father was to leave him and drive to the surgery myself. When I arrived I saw the same doctor in the hallway but he quickly scurried off when he saw me. I asked the receptionist if the prescription had been completed and she said it had. I asked when it had been completed and she refused to tell me. I then phoned the pharmacy who told me that they had just received the prescription and would delivery it straight over. I felt terrible to leave my fathers bedside but if I hadn’t, he would have spent his last few days in pain.