General Chat

Our prescriptions are ordered by the chemist automatically every month.
We do of course have to see the doctor or nurse regularly (like ISP & his Mrs) to keep a check on us, but... usually there is no hassle.
We are so lucky to have this WONDERFUL NHS....
With all the problems we have, and there are many....where would we be without it?
Deanna X

That is how ares used to happen, until the last couple of times. Don't know what has changed. maybe there is a new practice manager with different ideas or something.

Both Mrs IGP and I have repeat prescriptions once a month.

We hand them in to the surgery on, say Monday, collect on Wednesday. We walk 100 metres to the pharmacy and collect them 10 minutes later.

Whilst waiting we do a bit of shopping.

We have to have a review with the doctor every six months, regardless of anything else, otherwise no repeat.

Simples.

Must all be computerised then Wisechild. sounds very efficient.

Glad your OH got sorted Ann.
One other thing I should mention is that blood/urine test results are back with the GP within 24 hours & when you go for the results the following day, the medication is adjusted if necessary, the prescription is renewed & you get a copy of the test results to take away. The repeat prescriptions can then be collected at any farmacy you choose & doesn´t have to be the same one each time.
Marion

How very simple wisechild why can't UK be like that? OH has got his now, it was waiting for him when he called in today.

In Spain, everyone has a "credit card" with their Health service details on it. Unless you have problems, all that´s required for repeat prescriptions is an annual trip to the GP for blood & urine tests etc. Then the prescription is renewed for 12 months. You just takeThe card to the chemist. It´s passed through the computer & Bob´s your uncle, job done.
Magic.
Marion

bobtanian...I either e-mail or phone them with our repeats,but the surgery seem to take our outdated one and send that.When I pick it up I'd be ages sorting it as it really is a shipping order and with constant changes,trying this and that ,and with the short time I can leave OH it is a problem as I have to do a supermarket dash!with that and the constant changing of his insulin and times I check his blood sugars,it's a wonder I can remember anything!!
The clerks in the surgery just put the prescriptions under the nose of the GP for them to sign without checking!

We avoid this by repeating the prescripting within days of collecting the first .......BUT then were asked how much do we need!!! as Doctor was worried we were using to much but we said the system is unreliable so we have to

Brenda,

If you go to collect them, you can hand them straight back and they will accept them......as unissued
but if they deliver them .......could you not phone and tell em what you dont need?

I could get the prescription delivered to the pharmacy and I could order on line or by phone. But I pass the surgery every day and the fact that I have to collect the prescription etc is extra incentive to go out and walk to the shops.

We have a shipping order of drugs for OH.He takes 33 every day...plus 2 different sorts of insulin.
We have had some changes of tabs lately...but they keep sending the older ones as well.When I take them back,unopened they have to be destroyed...what a waste.As they are in blister packs I don't see a problem of any interference.No wonder the NHS is in trouble.When we lived in Spain,if we had any Spanish drugs lewft over we took them to the Sisters of Mercy convent and they were very grateful.
I don't have to go to the surgery for our meds thougn as Morrisons pick up every day,so I get them when I shop.

My wife and I must have the best GP surgery and the best pharmacy in the country.

Phone the GP at 8.30 and we always get seen same day, usually pm but quite frequently in the morning. The pharmacy? Brilliant service - we ring the pharmacy and they do everything - order the repeat prescription from the docs, pick it the next day and the following day deliver to us, all free.

Wonderful service

we are fortunate in that respect, our surgery has an arrangement with Boots that current prescriptions are collected every day and taken to the pharmacy.......all we have to do is ring up the surgery , order the script and collect from the pharmacy next day, they also do a six months order....... scripts are held in boots and made up ready for collection, all we have to do there, is remember the dates........if there is something that I dont need that month, I tell them, and they don't issue it....

I get the feeling that the 'service' is run for the benefit of the staff/doctors not the other way round. This is the second time running we have got there to pick them up to find the surgery closed for a meeting or something and the second time in a row that something has gone wrong with the prescriptions, last time they produced the item I had crossed as not needing and didn't give me the three items I needed. Gosh it sounds as if I have a chemist shop each month but it is a double for BP and a single for cholestrol!! And I have stopped taking aspirin because even the pharmacist said we keep getting conflicting advice.

Our local pharmacy, a Lloyds, causes all the problems with repeat prescriptions - just something else trying to make life more bothersome:)

Monday took OH's and my repeat prescriptions into surgery (don't do it on line because I pass the surgery every day.) New notice in surgery - repeat prescriptions now take 3 working days, collect those brought in Monday on Thursday. Well we don't ever leave it to the last minute so no problem there. Minor inconvenience because they have to be collected after 12.

Go round at 12.15, notice on the door. "Sorry surgery shut between 12 and 2.30pm. Grrrr. Wasted journey.

OH walks round at 3pm to collect them, they have got mine, can't find his. "I'll print one" she says "Oh can't do that the printer is broken"! Rep from the chemist is in collecting prescriptions to be made up and collected tomorrow. Receptionist asks if she an hand write it. 'No don't think that will be accepted' chemist rep replies. What on earth used to happen before computers? Hand written prescriptions?

This is a large surgery with about 6 doctors, wouldn't you think they might have more than one printer? In fact I know my doctor has one in his surgery, OH doesn't know this of course. I would have politely suggested she get the doctor to print a copy off! So now we have to go in another time for another prescription and we are away for a week, home a week then away a month so it is going to have to be fine tuned!