On Sunday this week, I realised that I only had enough medication left for about half a week. This is something of an exaggeration since I take several kinds of medication per day and only one of them had run out, but since it’s pretty much the most important one, it needed urgent fixing. So on Monday morning, I headed out to the pharmacist to see if my replacements had arrived. I was told no, but that they’d been ordered and should be in within a day or so. This would be fine if it happened, and so I was off on my second mission of the morning… the Doctor’s Office.
The reason for this was one of my other medications, this one three monthly requires an injection and needs to be ordered in advance. So I ordered it, mentioned about the other prescription (and was told it hadn’t come in yet), and attempted to book an appointment for a nurse to actually perform the injection. I was basically told to come back at the end of the week since they don’t have any nurse slots.
Just before close of business Monday, the pharmacist phoned to say the Doctor’s Office refused to honour the prescription due to a dosage change and that I would need to speak to the doctor. So I phoned and was told to call back at 8:30 the following morning for an emergency appointment (due to low medication supplies). I did this (though up until 8:50 their answer phone said the surgery was closed), and they refused an appointment, saying they’d get the doctor to call me back.
This morning, I called again. I’ve since ran out of meds, and I am yet to see or hear from a doctor. I spoke to two receptionists this morning, and again, all I could get was “The doctor will call you back”. At least this time I have a time… It’ll be by lunchtime. Their excuses have ranged from having no doctors to no nurses to not being able to book in advance due to $situation_of_the_day. I believe none of this of course.
So now I wait. I am supposed to be going out this afternoon…
2 Comments on The Day the Meds Ran Out…
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Just wanted to comment that I still have no meds nor even a response from the Doctors.
I don’t know what these meds are, but my reaction in this situation would be to go there and calmly insist that the receptionists talk to the doctor between patients to explain the situation, pointing out that because of the dosage change the chemist can’t give you even an emergency supply (which my chemist has done a number of times for my mother/father). If you can’t go there to do this, write a letter to the GP and outline what’s happened and what you need. If that can get to the surgery it will get action – but definitely make a formal complaint to the surgery in writing. Given that patient ratings are coming for GPs and hospitals, they ought to take notice.