I know that some of my fellow liveaboards get their repeat meds this way every time, but, gosh, I wouldn't want to do that. In fairness, it all worked out OK, but it involved being there at half eight when the Medical Centre opened, persuading the receptionist that I was a bone fide Temporary Resident, and then getting an appointment for 10.20 with one of the GPs. Trek back to the boat, hang about reading the paper, then walk back up the hill to see the doctor.
He was running to time, and had no problem with giving me a script for another month's supply. It's one of those new health centres with a pharmacy in the same building, so I nipped in there and around ten minutes later finally had my drugs.
Points to note: I had to tell the receptionist that I needed emergency treatment (true to the extent that I was running out of drugs I mustn't stop abruptly) and that I was staying somewhere with a postcode. I'd anticipated that one by looking up the postcode for the Stanley Arms last night, and since we were moored nearby, I thought that that would be good enough for them. They just need an address that's inside their practice area to put in the relevant box.
Someone told us the other day that there is a proposal to introduce season ticket repeat prescriptions, such as they have in other countries. That would mean that you got a script valid for three or six months, and presented it every month at any pharmacy of your choice, which would be much more convenient all round, not least because it would save the surgery staff an awful lot of routine and unnecessary work processing repeats.
The only other thing of note was that on my way back from the Medical Centre the first time, I got stopped by the police.
/blur
A pleasant young police woman in a small car (they don't call them Pandas any more, do they?) saw me walking along the side road that leads to the zig zag path down the hill to the footbridge over the canal, and had a casual little chat with me. I didn't think anything about it until a few minutes later, when I realised that I'd been a strange older man walking by himself past a kids playground.
I'm not complaining, it was all very friendly and just an example of effective coppering really, keeping tabs on stuff. But it's the very first time it's happened to me.
By the time I was back at the boat the second time, it was a case of a late coffee, and then an early lunch. The time restrictions on Saltersford Tunnel, whereby you can only enter between the hour and twenty past northbound, meant that we needed to set off at the right moment to get there during the window.
Leaving just after twelve resulted in us arriving just before one, having had to hang about outside Barnton Tunnel for a couple of boats to come through the other way. Both these tunnels are narrow and a bit bendy, and in the case of Saltersford, you can't necessarily see a boat that's coming through.
We've had a very pleasant cruise of it since, mainly in warm sunshine, finally tying on the towpath just beyond bridge 123 and just before Dutton Stop Lock. We passed Chance not long before we finished.
Sheila plans an early start tomorrow, setting off at seven with the aim of getting to Preston Brook Tunnel at eight, which is the start of the ten minute window for northbound boats through that one. Preston Brook isn't particularly bent, but it's long enough to make the time control necessary.
6 comments:
That's what Repeat prescriptions used to be like, years ago, before they had to be handed in to and collected from the surgery for verification EVERY month!! It would make life a lot easier for everybody - but 'Big Brother' seems to be watching us, and doesn't trust us to handle our own medications with care! Rog and I have prescription pre-payment cards for which we pay just about £10 a month on DD, every month. The doc still won't give us more than 1 months meds on a prescription because he says the NHS doesn't get as much money as we only pay one prescription charge???? Huh??? We are both on two or more drugs on our prescriptions and we pay the same regardless of how many drugs we have, but he still doesn't seem to get it!!! Frustrating or what???
Hi
Frustrating, isn't it. According to my GP, it's not about what we pay, it's the fact that the pharmacists get a dispense fee for each new script they fill. The ABPI has persuaded the DoH that prescribing more than one month at a time can be wasteful because of the risk of changing your treatment when you've got several month's supply of the old one.
There's some truth in that, but not a lot, frankly.
All the best
Bruce
I work in a GP Surgery, and the simple fact is that, with the exception of a few medications, we're not allowed to give you more than 1 month at a time, as much as we'd like to as it would make our lives much easier. This isn't something new, yet you chose to present yourself as an emergency when clearly it wasn't, more a case of you not being able to organise yourself far enough in advance, or being unwilling to change your plans to allow for another script to be sent. You took an emergency appointment which is actually meant for an emergency, ie, someone who is actually sick, not for someone who can't organise their medication properly. Shameful!
Elaine
I find that a very surprising comment, and not only because Bruce had indeed done all he needed to "organise" himself. When we explain to our GP surgery that we are going on an extended trip on our boat, they seem perfectly willing to provide my wife and myself with enough medicine to last us 3 months. Do different rules apply in various health areas?
Elaine: I'm sorry if that's how you see it. In my defence, this is the first time in eight years I've had to do this, and as John says, it wasn't about poor organisation, but because the PO seems to have lost the script as it went towards the pharmacy.
The appointment I was given wasn't one of the practice's emergency slots (it's a very well organised practice and has a separate bank of those) but one of the routine, available on the day slots. So I didn't block anyone else's emergency access.
I know practice staff are only allowed to set up one month's repeat at a time, but the GP can prescribe for as long as he/she sees fit, they just come under pressure from the PCT/commissioning group to stick to one month.
If my own GP is right, this is time and resource inefficiency at the urging of the ABPI. A season ticket system would be much better all round.
It's interesting that my GP in Anglesey was in a dispensing practice, and did not problem with prescribing six months at a time for me.
John: thanks for your support!
All the best
Bruce
There's always room for a spirited debate in the NHS!
In defence of pharmacists, the dispensing fee that they receive is the same regardless of the number of tablets prescribed - the dispensing fee is NOT the the prescription charge, which is a tax payment that goes straight back to the government. The dispensing fee is a pittance and 3-monthly prescribing could put many village pharmacies out of business. As explorers of the remote, I'm sure that boaters can appreciate what a disaster that would be.
Now, how about a solution? Well, there is a scheme called the "repeat dispensing scheme' where the GP issues a special prescription bundle - a top sheet and up to six repeat prescriptions. These are dispensed at the specified intervals (usually monthly) without the need for a visit to the GP. The only downside is that they all have to be dispensed by the same pharmacy but if you can't get back to that pharmacy monthly then a postal delivery may be possible.
The 'repeat dispensing scheme' is an essential pharmacy scheme so it's national and all pharmacists should be able to provide it. Now whether your doctor is able and willing is another matter.....
Hope that helps
Sue, nb Indigo Dream
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