Faulty insulin protocol?

[Pumper_Sue]

Does anyone know how the system works for taking back faulty insulin?
I asked the pharmacist yesterday and he says I need to get another prescription for replacements. I don't see why the NHS should have to pay for it though.
It's the 1st time in 47 years I have had insulin not working, so quite a shock to the system.


I have been having to run at 200% basal and bolus for the last week or so and still feeling toxic.
Thought it was a faulty pump so used my spare, still same result, then went and changed to a dif cannula, no improvement, I then injected a correction dose. Nothing at all happened. 😡
So as a final option used a vial of insulin which is from a dif batch and been sitting in my fridge since May. Instant success and back to normal numbers now.

 

[Northerner]

Wow! Glad you managed to get it sorted Sue! 🙂 I don't know what the protocol is - as you say, the NHS shouldn't have to pay for it if it is faulty. I suppose the difficulty would be in tracking down why it is faulty, which may be down to some problem in the way it was kept before it reached you.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Wow! Glad you managed to get it sorted Sue! 🙂 I don't know what the protocol is - as you say, the NHS shouldn't have to pay for it if it is faulty. I suppose the difficulty would be in tracking down why it is faulty, which may be down to some problem in the way it was kept before it reached you.

Oh I agree something has happened to it, before I collected it. I know the temp in the fridge is ok as I have a thermom in there and also a an earlier bottle that is fine. I also know as soon as Boots receive insulin or any other drug to be kept in fridge it goes straight in.

 

[Northerner]

Oh I agree something has happened to it, before I collected it. I know the temp in the fridge is ok as I have a thermom in there and also a an earlier bottle that is fine. I also know as soon as Boots receive insulin or any other drug to be kept in fridge it goes straight in.

If it happened before it reached Boots then I suppose there is the possibility that others will experience the same problems with insulin in the same batch or delivery Where's RachelT when you need her? 🙂

 

[Pumper_Sue]

If it happened before it reached Boots then I suppose there is the possibility that others will experience the same problems with insulin in the same batch or delivery Where's RachelT when you need her? 🙂

Now that's a thought I will ring the manufactures tomorrow and ask them if there has been any problems else where 🙂

 

[trophywench]

I've only had one faulty lot - it was Humulin I and it went crustalline - so I shot back to Boots with me box of cartridges, I got an instant replacement box of cartridges without a new script and the Pharmacist asked me to hang on whilst she rang Eli Lilly, then called me round the counter into the pharmacy to talk to them.

It had been acting like injecting water, then I'd suddenly go hypo and in fact had had a trip to Telford Hospital A&E in an ambulance only the previous day as I went deeply hypo whilst we were visiting Ironbridge Gorge museum and as nothing Pete could do would bring me out of it, he had to ring 999 - we were on one of the motorbikes at the time so no way could he take me.

Anyway - next time I went in - she came out when she saw me and said they'd issued a recall on the whoe batch.

So Sue - they should be doing the ringing not you!

But yes - do it if they won't!

 

[FM001]

Probably wrong but I'd have thought they would have to exchange the insulin just like any faulty goods you take back to the shops, the onus is on the shop-owner to investigate why the goods became unfit for the intended purpose and might have to trace this back all the way to the manufacturer.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Thanks everyone will be on the case this morning 🙂

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Have been back into Boots where the lovely lady pharmacist was on duty.
She listened and said straight away I will order replacement insulin now for you and it will be in tomorrow morning. She will also be sending back the faulty batch to be checked out as well.
Now that's what I call good service 🙂

 

[Northerner]

Have been back into Boots where the lovely lady pharmacist was on duty.
She listened and said straight away I will order replacement insulin now for you and it will be in tomorrow morning. She will also be sending back the faulty batch to be checked out as well.
Now that's what I call good service 🙂

Good to hear Sue! 🙂

 

[Steff]

Have been back into Boots where the lovely lady pharmacist was on duty.
She listened and said straight away I will order replacement insulin now for you and it will be in tomorrow morning. She will also be sending back the faulty batch to be checked out as well.
Now that's what I call good service 🙂

Good news Sue, nice end result

 

[trophywench]

That's exactly the response you should have got the first time!

Good.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

That's exactly the response you should have got the first time!

Good.

Oh I agree 🙂 Slight problem though when you have to deal with Italian locum pharmacists and they have no idea how the system works.
The regular pharmacist did say that there was a shortage of trained pharmacists and boots did tend to have bad luck in who they have for locums.