to think my doctor's really shit?

[hmmcake]

One month old baby was diagnosed with eczema by paediatrician for which he prescribed diprobase, which worked great. On 2 further visits to the dr for repeat prescriptions, doublebase and dermol have been prescribed instead, the first of which caused a severe allergic reaction. Why, when something works, do drs try to prescribe something different when we ask for a repeat prescription? Is it just us or is the dr nuts???

Yeah doctors are shit.

Sounds mad but try porridge oats. Put some in the foot of an old pair of tights, then hold it under the water as you run the bath. The water will go a milky colour. Then when baby is in the bath wash use the tights filled with oats like a sponge.

I know a lot of people who have used this and it works like a miracle. Got to be worth a try rather than a lifetime of using horrible chemicals on the skin.

because they get money for prescribing certain things maybe?

I'm just guessing.

yy porridge oats really does work.

And yes, your doctor is shit.

Did you point out that you wanted diprobase? What did the paed say when you explained?

Some products are much much cheaper than others, could explain it. Ds3 had fairly major reactions to the eight products our GP tried out on him, and we were met with complete scepticism that they could be making him worse.

One day our GP wasn't available and we got seen by a trainee who was horrified by ds3's open weeping sores and called in another GP, who referred him to an amazing consultant - who in turn said ds3's eczema was amongst the worst he'd ever seen. We had to pay privately for a prescription but it sorted the problem out within 2 weeks. Incidentally he felt the problem was the preservatives commonly used in the usual products.

Thanks everyone for getting back to us, when we asked for what the paed had prescribed, the dr said 'I'm going to prescribe you doublebase' which we really stupidly assumed must be the same stuff in a bigger dispenser. We thought of trying porridge oats, but to be honest we're terrified of putting anything on her skin except what we're using already. Her skin was red, inflamed and peeling off her. I put some on her head and a month later it's still the only place she still has flaking skin, and she's always clawing at it, she's only 3 months old. When we challenged the 2nd time she tried to prescribe something different the receptionist went in to see her and she changed it straight away to diprobase. I'm so angry she'd try to do it again though.

pawsnclaws, I'd really appreciate knowing what you're prescribed. my email's [email protected]. if you don't want to post it on here. Thanks again everyone, we think they must get 'sweeteners' too for prescribing stuff.

I have psoriasis and get through a kilo of diprobase a month - it's wonderful stuff! I find porridge oats very soothing too - could you do a patch test somewhere to see if they'll aggravate?

Hope your little one is better soon - it's so hard when they can't understand what's happening.

There s very frequently a manufacturer problem with diprobase and cannot be supplied by the pharmacy.
Has Cetreban been tried--this is onften supplied when there is difficulty.
Believe me Diprobase is actually a lot cheaper than the other 2 you have been supplied with, so it would be i your GP's best interest to supply it, so l can only guess there s a problem

Hi there Hmmcake,

Firstly, my sympathies. I've had eczema all my life and have had the same experience, which is that products that have the same active ingredient (and are therefore "supposed" to be the same) can work very differently. I really hope your DD gets better soon, and well done for sticking to your guns and getting her what she needs.

Secondly, in defence of your GP; she may well be under pressure to prescribe certain products, but not in the way you might think. The pharmaceutical industry is - quite rightly - forbidden to give GPs any sort of incentive to prescribe their product over another. However, most Primary Care Trusts operate a "formulary" which specifies which products the GPs are supposed to prescribe.

GPs are still legally and morally responsible for their own prescribing decisions, so they're not obliged to stick to the formulary. However, they do come under pressure from the NHS organisation itself to conform unless there's a good clinical reason not to.

So while she clearly made the wrong call in changing your DD's prescription, the pressure to change would almost certainly have come from the PCT rather than Big Pharma.

Again, well done on fighting your DD's corner and she's lucky to have you looking out for her.

Thats interesting Doha. My DD was prescribed diprobase for a while, and on one occassion they didnt have enough of the big dispensers, so we came out of the chemist with a big bagful of the little tubes.

We found that doublebase was better, diprobase seemed a bit drying, where there was no risk of that with doublebase.

Its generally due to cost.

Was specialist private? My GP has a policy that they will not prescribe treatment from private consultants unless the cheaper treatment has been tried first.

But someone said here that this is not the case, and with a baby with skin problems, I'd be really cross even if one cream was cheaper.

I'm sorry hmmcake that you have had a bad experience with your GP, but I would like to clarify that whilst a GP may prescribe something cheaper for 'health economic reasons' (ie the less that is spent on each drug results in more being available from the pot for other more expensive drugs. And if the cheaper drug does the same job as the more expensive brand then this makes sense - although obviously this was not the case for you and therefore diprobase should be prescribed), they categorically do not get 'sweeteners' or other payments for prescribing certain drugs. If they were accepting money or other things for prescribing certain drugs then they would face disciplinary procedures.

I think the big issue here is the fact that the GP has ignored what the consultant has prescribed and thinks they know better. Consultants are there for a reason, ie they are specialists in their field, and I think really if a GP has referred their patient to one then they should go along with whatever the consultant recommends for the treatment plan.

A friend of mine had a real issue with her GP; she had a problem with her tummy muscles and the GP was insistant that the consultant could do an operation to sort out the problem. She went to the consultant who said that no, the operation was quite risky and they didn't do it (he thoroughly explained the reasons why and my friend agreed with him). Told to go back to GP for a physio referral, goes back to GP only to be bollocked and told that the consultant does do that operation and told that she would be referred back and to demand the operation. So back to the consultant, again Consultant says they don't do operation and refers her back to the GP, who then tells her off and says to go back and demand the op. See a pattern here?

OP, is it possible for you to go back to the paediatrician? That might be your best bet if your GP is being an arse.

Sympathies. Eczema is horrible, even worse when it's your tiny baby who is suffering.

Very strange that your GP refused to dispense the recommended treatment. Doha and outrageous could be right - although it would seem odd for a PCT to object to diprobase, it's such a common treatment.

Do try the porridge oats, they really helped ds when he had infant eczema. (Thankfully he grew out of it, hope your baby does the same.)

Am sending you a private email with prescription details etc.

I hadnt realised from your OP that it was a consultant first and then the GP - I wonder if the letter from the paed might have said doublebase, even theough the paed verbally said diprobase.

Both names would sound really similar to the person typing up the letter afterwards, and sometimes letters arent checked by the person who dictated them.

Hi, have sent you a pm via mumsnet - look at your inbox at the top of the page!

I just wanted to add every person is different what works for one is useless/aggrevates on the next; it's a case of trial and error.

Even some of the mildest stuff made dds excema go crazy what actually worked best was organic sunflower oil with added vit E a complete accidental discover from doing baby massage with her!!!

Fortunately hers was only moderate and has improved hugely with age. As for the dd4 who has psorasis and recurrant strep A infections haven't found anything that great.

If the diprobase worked and the doublebase was rubbish then make a follow up appointment, tell the GP that and ask for diprobase to go on repeat. If they refused then I'd say your GP's rubbish but maybe his kids have eczema and he finds doublebase better, you can't moan until you have been back to see him and told him his stuff wasn't as good, although I accept if you'd found diprobase worked it's odd he didn't just prescribe that, perhaps you weren't positive enough about it at the time and he though something different might be better. GPs rarely prescribe stuff just to piss their patients off.

Hi Doha, we get the prescription filled at Asda and twice now they've had it so I don't think it's that, perhaps it's what Outrageous said.

can't imagine having to put up with this forever Outrageous, it's hard enough to see someone else suffer with it. Thanks for the kind words and explaining so well why they're so pants at the surgery.

I'm so glad I posted on here, I feel so much better now. we saw a peadiatrician because, after asking health visitors and midwives, for a month what her rash was they all said milk rash, so I made an appointment with a GP at the surgery - there's 9 or 10 of them there and we never seem to see the same one twice - he typed up a letter and sent us to the hospital. it was so nice to finally get something that worked to clear it up and I feel terrible that I trusted the dr who prescribed doublebase because if I hadn't of been so stupid my daughter wouldn't be suffering now. You just feel like you're banging your head off a brick wall when you're begging all these trained professionals that are supposed to be there to help you for help and they think you're being neurotic.

thanks to everyone, we'll definitely try porridge oats.

CarGirl, hope you find something soon, thanks pawsnclaws, gotta go, I'll check my mail tomorrow

We use Lush dream cream on Ds, all over twice a day. It really helps. He used to eat it when he was little, which is not a problem with it as there is nothing in it to be worried about.
He also got much better when he started weaning at 7 months. He also has a fish oil capsule every day, and we can tell the difference. His skin became soft and smooth.

We also use dermasilk tops and bottoms under his clothing. GP refuses to prescribe them, so we have to pay £80 for a pair of pyjamas...

www.dermasilk.co.uk

Yeah doctors are shit.

because they get money for prescribing certain things maybe?

Its generally due to cost.

FFS do you lot generally talk rubbish about things you know nothing about

I think what he prescribes comes out of his budget, so it is financially viable that he prescribes a cheaper alternative first to see if that works, if not they would try something else and so on until they find a cheaper alternative that works.