The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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11:46am on Wednesday, 30th March, 2016:
Anecdote
I picked up some statins from the pharmacy today, having been out of them for a month. Only, well...
January
I run out of statins and go to the pharmacy for the repeat prescription.
The pharmacy says my repeat prescription has ended but gives me an emergency prescription and tells me to contact the surgery.
I contact the surgery and am told a random doctor will be asked to sign off on my new repeat prescription.
February
I run out of the emergency supply of statins and go to the pharmacy for the new repeat prescription.
The pharmacy says they haven't been sent my repeat prescription and they're forbidden by law to issue a second emergency supply.
I contact the surgery and am told the random doctor said I need to come in and be examined. The random doctor is only available two afternoons a week, on both of which I teach. I'll have to wait until March for an appointment.
March
I go to the surgery for my appointment with the random doctor. It is not the random doctor. It is a nurse. The receptionist takes my blood. I still have a bruise on my arm from where she took it.
I get the name of my doctor changed from being a random one to being one whose name I recognise.
I get a phone call from the surgery telling me that my doctor wants to do a phone consultation as my cholestrol level is sky high.
I do the phone consultation and explain that my cholestrol is sky high because I haven't had any statins for a month.
The doctor sends a fresh repeat prescription to the pharmacist.
I go to pick up my new prescription and find that one has been waiting there since February.
This would have all been a lot easier if the surgery had told me that I needed to see a nurse when they knew I needed to see one, rather than when I next contacted them. It would also have been easier if they had told me they were sending a one-month prescription to the pharmacy to tide me over until I got to see the nurse. Instead, I've been dying for over a month.
Communication to the surgery works very well. It's communication from the surgery that doesn't work well.
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Copyright © 2016 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).