Perscription Issue?

[Holyfire82]

Hi

Been a diabetic for 25 years (April 1996! - god I feel old haha) For the last 4 years my GP who I joined around about then, have used an online service where I can login, see my details, records etc. and order my prescription (namely insulin and blood test strips). It wont let me order until 3 weeks from my last order date (which last month was the 9th July)

I ordered it then, and was told I could pick it up on the 12th - the pharmacy didn't have a record of my order on the 12th - this has never happened before in 4 years of doing this. I rang the doctors and spoke to a lady regarding prescriptions, she said although I could order it from the 9th it shouldn't let me collect into the 16th, as that was 4 weeks since the order! Again, I reorder every 3 weeks - partly because I always want to order early - can't risk running low on insulin.

I am concerned the GP has changed procedures without telling me, they said they haven't, or maybe I ordered on a Friday and it just wasn't looked at until I rang them on the Monday maybe?

I have been taking more insulin than usual recently, so will be needing it a bit quicker than normal, but my hb1ac was perfect last time I did one, they normally always are.

what are everyone's experiences with these type of things? Or am I just overthinking, ranting for no reason haha

 

[Lucyr]

When I have this situation of a prescription I’ve ordered not being received by the pharmacy it’s usually that the gp has received the request and declined because I’m due a “medication review”. Speaking to the pharmacist usually sorts things, as they can ask the GP to sort it out or give you enough to keep you going until they get the prescription. For my prescriptions I can’t reorder until 4 weeks later for most things, 8 for others.

 

[rebrascora]

I just looked at my online prescription ordering and I last collected insulin on 1 July so can't reorder until the 22nd July... and then it usually takes several days before I can collect, so that probably amounts to nearly 4 weeks, but I don't need to order insulin each month as it usually lasts 2 or 3 months so it is never a problem for me, but if your supplies are running low as you get towards reordering then it sounds like you maybe need to speak to your nurse and ask if they can increase your prescription allowance. You should not be running low on insulin because if you were to become ill and suddenly need lots more or accidentally break a pen or cartridge when you had none left then you would be high and dry so to speak. I always reorder when I use the penultimate cartridge in the fridge.
If I had this problem I would ask the diabetes trained nurse at the surgery to contact me or make an appointment to see her to sort it out.

 

[Drummer]

I was without the Thyroxine I should take every day for almost two weeks as I could not get to the pharmacy due to huge queues, and being unable to stand outside in the heat. When my husband took over he got to the counter and was told that I had not got a prescription, and I had not had any tablets all this year - which can't be true, I get less than 2 months supply at a time.
After requesting a prescription it was back to queuing at the pharmacy again, but my husband insisted on being given the prescription when they were closing and still could not fill it, so he then took it to the chemist which was open late and got the tablets.
I have no idea what is going on at the pharmacy at the clinic - it was taking about quarter of an hour for people to collect their medication, with dozens waiting.

 

[trophywench]

Just ask your doc to increase the amount of insulin you can order at any time. Point out that you could eg fall over and break something and suddenly need 3 x the amount of insulin you usually do, you could accidentally drop the cartridge/vial getting it out the fridge and smash it on your lovely cold ceramic tiles kitchen floor - or any other plausible reason you can think of. I get 2 vials a month - I usually only use one, but that's 'usually'. I also got 2 boxes of cartridges - and OK so I cannot order every single repeat scrip in one go, only the tablets I take need re-ordering every 28 days like clockwork - my inhaler I only us 'as and when' doesn't, my test strips don't, my insulin doesn't, my emergency use insulin pens don't, my lancets don't .....

Chronic diseases don't behave exactly the same for people!

 

[MarkGeordie]

I highly recommend getting more with each prescription and ask the GP to action this. I learnt the hard way when last year I ended up in a situation where I had ran out because the few pens I had left got damaged and I had no other boxes. I in the end had to speak with the DSN who got the hospital pharmacy to give me some to tide me over.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Sorry to hear about your prescription woes @Holyfire82

As @Lucyr said, often the fastest route to a resolution is to talk to your GP, or practice pharmacist and explain how difficult this has made things for you, and how you think they could support you better.

My small local surgery recently combined with a number of others to get over a ‘number of patients on the books’ threshold, and while there have been few if any negative consequences for me, one of the changes was that prescription requests that used to take 48hrs to process now take 72-96hrs. So I just have to be a bit more on the ball with my re-ordering.

Hope you can have a chat and clear things up 🙂

 

[AndBreathe]

The way I deal with my prescriptions is to order online, then later the same day, check via my online record that the prescription has been done. At that point, I know I can collect from the pharmacy any time. I usually leave it until next day to collect.

My prescriptions are for 28 days of medcation, but I can order each 21 days.