Hi
@Busdriver60,
So far I've managed to get every prescription completed successfully from the local Tesco Pharmacy. A couple have been supplied in 2 parts, but still within the monthly repeats. I also have both the 10k and 25k capsules on my prescription and that gives me some extra flexibility - if one size isn't available I immediately do a prescription request for the other size. I've received both in the same month and that has allowed me to get a modest stockpile. I take Creon in industrial quantities!
One advantage of Tesco Pharmacy is that Tesco Central Office search for meds across 2 of the main wholesale outlets. I think there are just 5 in UK.That gives them better access to meds that are in short supply. A local chemist won't necessarily have that "reach".
@eggyg, great advice about Guts UK; I will get their template and send off a letter to my MP and do my bit with this. Several months ago I had a face-to-face D consult and my regular Consultant most kindly wrote a prescription request to the Hospital Pharmacy (as a one off) which gave me a further buffer. That Hospital is in a different County, so a bit cheeky on my part. But needs must!
Also,
@eggyg, about referrals to Consultants: I recently was forced to investigate how these work (very long story, for another day - unless I lose the will to live beforehand!). In Bucks, Oxford and Berks Integrated Care System (BOB ICS) [and I suspect UK wide] the referral request has to be made using the NHS IT system. This online request is quite constrained: the GP must not make a formal diagnosis, can only outline the symptoms and hint at a possible diagnosis that needs confirming. Also the GP cannot request that the patient sees a named individual, just ask for a referral to a type of clinic (eg in my case a Gastro clinic). The GP can say that the patient has been previously seen in a Gastro clinic in that Trust.
The referral goes electronically to a Hospital Triage Team. My request left my GP in Dec 23 (initiated in the name of a different GP [WHY?] and was approved in Jan 24, with a 2 step process: a generic approval and a recommendation for a referral. I speculate that the 2 steps are part of the data management by IT to progress this paperless paperwork! Then, KEY ASPECT, the IT should generate an NHS referral text or email back to both the GP and the Patient. The IT holds a record that the request has been triaged and the electronic response was sent. In my case this record exists, but neither I nor my Surgery have received that actual detail; my Surgery is a massive Medical Centre for the town so I'm not surprised they had not noticed there had been no reply last January and I had no awareness that I should expect a text or email. In hindsight it would have been useful to have known that an NHS Refrral response would be sent and advised to look out for it, including in spam emails.
My GP Secretarial team could see the existence of this NHS Referral email, but could not glean any detail; I have recently searched my emails for anything sent by NHS referral and found a couple of older referrals, but not this Gastro request in Dec 23.
So,
@eggyg, if by now you have received no response, I suggest you search both your messages and emails for anything from NHS Referrals from after your request date and just verify that you haven't missed something. Then go back to your GP asking them to do that same research and establish what they might, or might not, know today.
My saga continued, but I'll spare you that backwash! I got a letter in Oct for a referral in late Nov to a different Consultant in Bucks. After days of investigation I was told that once a referral request has been made and triaged, the NHS IT deletes the medical-in -confidence details and just leaves an IT record of the process. Since then I have managed to get a copy of the GP's note covering his referral request, the precise details of the GP's referral request (what would have been a formal letter in days gone, but now an electronic message) signed by the GP I met in Dec 23, plus the completed Triage 2 step process approving my referral (but ignoring the request for urgency in the original referral request, hence 11 months delay). So I no longer believe what a Secretary told me and I can no longer trust much of what I'm told by either the Hospital in Bucks nor my Medical Centre.
I have also checked my NHS records and the GP notes from my face-to-face meeting with him in Dec are fully documented correctly, but no electronic record on my "Consultations and Events" section of my NHS records exist tracking the progress of the referral request. Not even the October letter giving me an appointment in late Nov 24. However in the last 16 months since I transferred to this Medical Centre there have been 82 Consultations and Events recorded on my NHS records; the vast majority are just one-liners effectively only telling me that someone accessed my medical records. A few record vaccinations etc and a few are from my TIA in April; one is the GP's detailed Diabetes review, plus some blood test results. But overall most are "inert" one-liners probably tracking an element of workload by the Med Cen in connection with me. But NONE recording or tracking my referral request.
I'm currently gathering my thoughts about how to best raise this with my Med Cen: lost essential data, misleading answers and general unease about their administration. They've provided me with a 3 page document about how to formally complain, but not how to initially raise a concern before making a formal complaint. Complaints can be made within 12 months after the event, so time that can be used to digest and reflect on the approach options.
