OK so you've taken another day off work to see the consultant, who failed to turn up to your last scheduled outpatients appointment, you get seen by a none consultant stand in doctor, at 6.30 in the evening cos he has been running late and has missed your 3.00 slot (ok to be charitable he may have had a few tough cases and maybe its not his fault or piss poor organisation at the hospital) he does his stuff, and magically hands over a prescription
Written on hospital stationary which can only be redeemed at the hospital
And of course the hospital pharmacy shut at 5.00
Which means yep you have to take the following morning off to travel a few hours to the hospital to queue up at the pharmacy
Why oh why is the prescription form not the same as the one you take to regular pharmacists?
You go to your private GP, he hands out a private prescription, which you can redeem at your regular chemist but have to pay more than if you had waited a month to see a nhs GP? While you paid the same tax, and saved the nhs money by not bothering their poor over worked GPs?
While at the same time your private dentist has no problem issuing prescriptions on nhs forms which you have no problem getting redeemed at nhs rates at the pharmacy, why different to docs?
Why the %^&* is the nhs and its crazy rules so messed up, why so many prescription forms types, why so hard to redeem them, why cannot any pharmacy not redeem any form, and why no sense to the subsidy?
Answers please?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
Ah, you see, this is far better, indeed almost dr rant worthy. You're pointing out real issues with the NHS system, rather than insulting doctors.
When this has happened to me, if it's urgent, the doctor directed me to someone who could open up the pharmacy and give me the prescription.
I'm sure everyone would agree with you that the prescription conundrum is Not a Good Thing.
Welcome to my life!
What the fuck is wrong with the Department of Health that it can't sort out even this kind of simple shit?
I'm mean, how fucking hard can it be to let community pharmacists dispense for hospital scripts that are, say, endorsed 'OUT OF HOURS' or whatever?
Let's talk to Prof Spratt and Alan Johnson about it:
Dr Rant: What is the fucking problem?
Proff Spratt: Well we all want to have a system so patients can get scripts dispensed out of hours. It would save us lots of time and be really good for patients.
Dr Rant: So what have you done about it?
Proff Spratt: Well, Dr Cleverclod made a stink about it and finally went to the papers when the management ignored him.
Dr Rant: What happened?
Proff Spratt: The managers got some staff who they had something on and told them to make a false complaint or they would let the NMC/GMC know about their drug habits.
Dr Rant: So Dr Cleverclogs got shafted?
Proff Spratt: Completely butt-fucked. By the next day he was suspended for having stolen crutons from the canteen and calling managers 'useless'. He spend five years suspended on full pay.
Dr Rant: So, he got it sorted in the end?
Proff Spratt: If you call setting up your own Kervorkian Death Machine in the kitchen and being found dead by your wife in the morning 'getting it sorted'.
Dr Rant: Why is this happening, Alan Johnson?
Alan Johnson: Well, clearly we don't give a fuck. Fucking doctors. Bleeding hearts, all of them. The only good doctor is a fucking dead one.
Dr Rant: Because they cost money?
Alan Johnson: That and they are such fucking pricks. Do you know they actually want to help people? Fuck save us!
Dr Rant: Thank you, I'm afraid that's all we have time for....
Actually DrRIAC, the reason you waited until 6:30 is that many consultants call in patients in blocks who have appointments over a 2, 3, or 4 hour or in some extreme cases all their patients for the day so they can better manage their time. Some modern facilities have built very expensive medical space to accommodate this practice.
Your point with regards to access may well be the most germane statement made on this or the runt site. I have asked numerous times why outcomes in the UK are some of the worst in both old and new Europe and have never had the question answered. Given that long term conditions are the biggest problem facing the nation and the health service, access to services and an up-to-date medical workforce are critical if we are to move the current curative health system towards a preventative one.
If a diabetic who depends on shift work to feed his family must burn a day of wages because the NHS would rather make sure that they are not inconvenienced, the patient will choose earning a living. If the service will not reform the way it delivers care and adapt to modern society it only serves as a barrier to patients who need care and is therefore a part of the problem. The next time the health system will see them is when they are a train wreck and require hospialisation are removed from the workforce and becomes a burden to their family instead of a provider. The cost to UK plc is massive, not to mention the cost to the person themselves and their family.
I think the current NHS is very comfortable where it currently resides. Access and convenience for patients appears not to be even be on the NHS's radar screen and that includes primary care contractors. The fact that we have some of the worst outcomes in Europe are directly related to the lack of access for and prioritisation of the patient by the people who work and contract with the NHS.
Interestingly, that dynamic flips 180 degrees when a patient pays for private care.
Access and 'block bookings' in hospitals are all about cost.
The Department of Health simply does not want to pay for access at market rates. There are no private companies currently willing to enter the extended hours market either because there is no profit in it at current DoH rates.
The Block Bookings (or open appointment system) is a very efficient way of doing things for the provider. It is crap for patients, but it is cheap as chips.
Interestingly, though, the Japanese love their primary care system and it is based on open appointment systems with very short consultation times that would give NIKU a stroke. No doubt NIKU will launch into a racist diatribe, but the point is that expectation plays a large part in this.
You cannot have a German health care system and US levels of tax, just as you cannot have a BMW if you are only willing to pay for a Ford Fiesta.
dr rant
its fuck all to do with money
the nhs is burning cash like its going out of fashion
its how the cash is spent
and lack of patient empowerment to really force change by taking their business elsewhere in countless small decisions
the prescription mess is a fucking disgrace
medicine should be about helping people live as normal a life as possible, and when even the simplest cases if insulin dependant diabetics are forced to take days and days off per month on a regular basis just to fit around the nhs timetable it just doesnt scan, its not cost effective for the individual patient, the country, or truth be told the nhs itself
the prescription conundrum is one which could be resolved overnight by a sensible political decision to allow all pharmacies to take all prescriptions from all sources on the same terms, easy peasy, minimal cost even
no one
It is not racist to point out that there is a significant difference between Japan and the UK in terms of expectations and our societies. Not to mention that they spend far less money on health than we do. Also, they would not tolerate one of their professionals berating members of the government to the extent you do. It would b seen as rude and disrespectful regardless of your differences.
But since this is Europe your comment is irrelevant as usual. It is an attempt to deflect people from the real debate. Why has our health service failed to reform, and why does it have some of the worst outcomes in both old and new Europe?
dr rant is a cunt will now use "no one" as an id, as the dr rant anti Anonymous postings has died down
No One, the lack of reform has much to do with the professional bodies who negotiate with the DofH. They have many inbuilt professional standards design to protect their incomes.
I don't know, but would not dismiss the possibility that pharmacists have not agreed to the above.
An excellent example of this type of behavior by professional bodies is the insistence by the surgical colleges to be able to speak the person who trained a foreign surgeon to give them individual privledges here in the UK. Because of this, if you are an older surgeon, the chances are that person is dead. It is yet another professional barrier to entry.
I can't think what the issue might be, but the govt may well be hamstrung by an obscure professional standard.
and of course im in wales my prescription is free
if im in england we have no democracy because we are run from scotland
In Scotland there isn't any means testing for nursing home payments. It's free to everyone. Makes free prescriptions look like chicken feed. You have to bankrupt yourself in England to get the NHS to pay for the bed.
The simple matter is that the hospital Dr COULD have given you a prescription that you could use at a normal pharmacy. The GP prescriptions which you take to the local pharmacy is green and called an FP10, the hospital can issue yellow ones called FP10H which are used in exactly the same way.
So what is the problem? Answer. Hospital managers do not want their Drs to use FP10H as the cost of the drug will be charged back to the hospital once it has been processed by the Prescription pricing Authority. This can take months and means the hospital cannot control and monitor it's costs. Much easier to dump the work (and cost)onto the GP. No concern on their part about convenience for patients - after all, they don't have to interact with patients themselves! - stay safely upstairs in an office!
"So what is the problem? Answer. Hospital managers do not want their Drs to use FP10H as the cost of the drug will be charged back to the hospital once it has been processed by the Prescription pricing Authority."
Excellent point. This is precisely the kind of managerial idea that NIKU accuses doctors of "not engaging with" and "obstructing".
When their stupid ideas DO come to pass he then complains about them on this blog - yet another contradiction from NIKU.
Care to reply NIKU or are you still smarting from your humiliation on the NHS experiment thread?
Post a Comment