Legal Addict

[classic33]

I'm having a little supply, drug, problem. My supplier has developed this habit of refusing me if I ask too often, or too soon.

This means that what was bad enough is getting worse. Before I'd phone my supplier up. Their records of what & when was given, checked. Often meeting with a refusal, call back later, when they'd let me have them. I'd go up, collect the paper that said they'd okay'd it and go off and pick em up.

Now, I've often to cut back and then go without, if I run out before they'll allow me any more.

The effects of the above had me in A&E twice last year, under blues. I'd love to come off the things, but that'll never happen. Not in my lifetime at least.
But they don't make it easy taking them in the first place.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Benzo's? Or painkillers?

 

[summerdays]

Why is there a difference between you and them about how long they should last...? Is it a prescribed amount per day or to take under certain conditions? Would it not be worth making an appointment to discuss the difference between your and their expectations?

 

[classic33]

Prescribed amount varies due to increases made by others.
Confirmation of the increase coming later. Also prescriptions are for one month(28 days).

@just_fixed, it's anti-epiletic medication. I was waiting to take the next lot at 04:00.

For whatever reason, it's got next to impossible to get over the last two years .

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Prescribed amount varies due to increases made by others.
Confirmation of the increase coming later. Also prescriptions are for one month(28 days).

@just_fixed, it's anti-epiletic medication. I was waiting to take the next lot at 04:00.

For whatever reason, it's got next to impossible to get over the last two years .

farking hell, that's worrying.

 

[classic33]

farking hell, that's worrying.

It's annoying.
Just wondering if there's any more on long term medication, in/been in a similar situation. How did they sort it.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

With meds that are literally life or death, one would hope in a 1st world country, you'd not struggle.

No emergency meds like Buccal Midazolam?

 

[classic33]

With meds that are literally life or death, one would hope in a 1st world country, you'd not struggle.

No emergency meds like Buccal Midazolam?

Just the same ones every day, Phenytoin Sodium, Clonazepam, Zonisamide(50mg & 100mg).

 

[fossyant]

It's getting very bad with GP's and having a short supply 'in stock'. Ideally you'd have a month to hand, but quite often you are on your last week/days before they will renew. It's madness as sometimes deliveries don't turn up. We had lots of problems with our GP when my son was first diagnosed Type 1 - a life threatening condition in which you can die quite quickly. I had to march down to the GP waving the handful of test strips we had left (less than a packet, and we go through a packet in 5-6 days).

The pain meds I was on in the last year were only renewed at the last minute - ran close to not having any, and the side effects cold have been nasty if I ran out.

The GP's make you feel like a criminal sometimes. You need a small stock, just in case. I had to make sure I had spares at the caravan, if I forgot, as a weekend off the drugs wasn't funny. Fortunately I've binned the lot due to side effects.

 

[mjr]

Just wondering if there's any more on long term medication, in/been in a similar situation. How did they sort it.

This does seem to be getting tighter. I wonder if it's an attempt to stop us getting four repeats of meds out of a three-month prepayment which should work (and saves you about £30/year - not a lot but heck, they said this would be free) but it seems a bit hit and miss now. There often seems to be something they have to wait for at least one time of the four, causing a delay and maybe pushing the fourth repeat past 90ish days. With per-item prescription charges going up yet again in April (as in 35 of the last 36 years) but the prepayment prices being held, I can see this becoming even more strict.

This is all unjust, though. Meds for more incurable long-term illnesses were going to be free in England and then the Cameron-led government got in in 2010 and put a stop to all that. Take action! http://www.prescriptionchargescoalition.org.uk/

And if you're well - well, best hope you don't get sick soon...

 

[fossyant]

The issue is with running out. Many medications have serious side effects, as Classic33 mentioned. Some are very serious. We've had to fight to get a stock of supplies for my son.

 

[mjr]

The issue is with running out. Many medications have serious side effects, as Classic33 mentioned. Some are very serious. We've had to fight to get a stock of supplies for my son.

Yes, I understand. I'm fortunate in that skipping a few days has relatively few medical side-effects, but I do still run out sometimes and it seems easier to do now. I can't stockpile as easily as I used to and even getting enough to travel can be awkward. Anyone else got a theory why, though?

 

[fossyant]

It will be budgets and the fact that prescription costs are under review, hence the move to 'generic' drugs, that aren't always as good.

I was on Duloxetine and Pregablin for pain, and you didn't want to miss more than a day's dose. I decided to slowly reduce these and come off them as the side effects were far worse. I put up with the pain. I've also stopped pain meds for my fractured spine, as soon as I came out of hospital. At least by not taking the meds, it stops me doing something silly, and the pain signals I need to rest.

 

[classic33]

This does seem to be getting tighter. I wonder if it's an attempt to stop us getting four repeats of meds out of a three-month prepayment which should work (and saves you about £30/year - not a lot but heck, they said this would be free) but it seems a bit hit and miss now. There often seems to be something they have to wait for at least one time of the four, causing a delay and maybe pushing the fourth repeat past 90ish days. With per-item prescription charges going up yet again in April (as in 35 of the last 36 years) but the prepayment prices being held, I can see this becoming even more strict.

This is all unjust, though. Meds for more incurable long-term illnesses were going to be free in England and then the Cameron-led government got in in 2010 and put a stop to all that. Take action! http://www.prescriptionchargescoalition.org.uk/

And if you're well - well, best hope you don't get sick soon...

Because of the condition, I don't pay for them.
But the cost of running out is often a trip to an A&E. It's the way that an untrained person now decides what I can have and when, I can't get my head round. I'm out, again, (supplier failure) on one until this time tomorrow. Fail to collect, for whatever reason, and it'll be another week.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

There is a national shortage of epilepsy meds and quite a lot of pain meds have been under scrutiny because GP's were prescribing them like candy, literally. I've seen clients meds being repeat renewed for decades without a review.

There was a report saying stockpiled meds was costing the NHS billions and lives (remember Shipman used the repeat meds loophole to disastrous effect). So quite rightly, they've tightened up. But morally and ethically each case should be reviewed.

Every patient now has to have a caseload Dr, maybe try to find out who that is and make an appointment. Or get in contact with the CQC, after all it is a vulnerable adult safeguarding issue.