Inefficiency at its Best

To ensure that I had sufficient medication to last me throughout our Cycle Across America, I needed to order a four month supply. There cannot be many requests of this nature, so I wrote a letter to one of the GP’s at our local surgery spelling out what I needed and asking if he could kindly provide me with the relevant prescriptions in advance of my trip. I wrote letter on 7th February and I handed it to the receptionist at the surgery the same day. ‘There’s no rush.’ I said. ‘I don’t need these until May.’

Despite 30 years NHS experience and a good understanding of the pressure that NHS services are under, I still wondered if I was being overly cautious in making this request so far in advance. I needn’t have worried. I have since had 16 contacts with my GP surgery, 14 contacts with local pharmacies, 7 of which I have visited in person, I have received 8 different prescriptions and finally, this week, just five days before I fly to America, I have the correct medication in the correct quantity to take with me.

The problem started when two of my drugs were not available. I was told they could not be ordered in and I would need to contact other pharmacies in the area to see if any of them held any stock of these drugs. Before I could do this however, I needed to go back to my GP surgery to request another prescription. I could not use the original one as some of the prescription had been filled and some not and the electronic prescription service (EPS) could not deal with this scenario. I had also been advised that I needed to ask for one of the drugs to be prescribed by its generic name not in its brand name as there were supply problems with the brand I was usually given.

However, I couldn’t order another prescription online as the GP surgery system would not allow me to request my medication within a defined period of time since my last prescription request. I called the surgery and many minutes into the recorded message, was advised that I could not make prescription requests over the phone. and so I visited the surgery. After 20 minutes queuing, I seemed to have the problem sorted within a few minutes. Indeed, the following week I received a very helpful text message from a pharmacist at the surgery, advising that my prescription was ready to collect and suggesting that should I have any queries or problems at all I should let them know. I picked up the prescription and realised when I got it home that the request for the generic prescription had been lost somewhere between myself, the receptionist, her electronic request to the pharmacist, the pharmacists request to the GP and me collecting my prescription.I remembered the helpful text message from the pharmacist so texted a reply only to fin that the message was sent from a number that would not accept a reply. Another visit to the GP surgery where the receptionist promised to send a message to ask the GP….. and so on ……. You know what the next few contacts were if I tell you that of the two items on my prescription, one was available and one was not.

To add to the confusion, after many phone calls chasing prescriptions, I realised they were no longer being sent to my chosen pharmacy, instead I began to receive messages saying ‘my drugs were in my post box’. At some point on the EPS system, my elected pharmacy had been changed and home delivery requested from one of the pharmacies that had a stock of one of my hard to get medications. This was done without my knowledge or my consent.

A catalogue of problems ensued, each requiring phone calls, face to face meetings or letters to resolve. I could go on but I am sure you can imagine the scenario from hereon in. I cannot fault any individual. My numerous contacts with the GP surgery and pharmacy staff were met with people who tried to help and yet it still took 30 contacts with healthcare professionals and 94 days to complete my request. Fingers crossed my medications don’t get confiscated at customs now.