AIBU to be so frustrated with NHS direct?!

[Sammy1888]

Every winter I get the flu, and the cough that comes with it sticks to my chest and my asthma makes me ridiculously wheezy and breathless, especially at night. I have been hospitalised before because of it. I have very mild asthma the rest of the time and never need to use my inhalers throughout the year; only when this awful flu comes every year just before Christmas. I have moved 6 times in the past 12 months, and my blue inhaler has got lost on the way.

I admit I should have gone to the doctors earlier in the week, but it is a 30 minute walk from my house to the nearest bus stop and my partner has only got a van with 2 seats so wouldn't be able to drive me and our baby (no babysitter really available). So I was just sort of hoping it would go away by itself.

Anyway last night was absolutely awful, I couldn't catch my breath, my chest was so tight and I was very very scared. So this morning I rang 111, they said a doctor would call me back. They didn't. I rang them again a few hours later. At 1.30 a doctor rang me back; she said I was clearly very ill and would fax a prescription to my nearest pharmacy as a matter of urgency for an inhaler, steroids and antibiotics. I was so relieved I burst into tears! My partner gave it a few hours to give the doctor time to send it as the pharmacy is a very long drive; he got there at 4.30 to find she hadn't actually bothered to send my prescription at all. I call 111 back again; they refuse to talk to me until I answer the 30 emergency questions for the 4th time today (have I injested any poisonous substance, have I seen a cancer specialist, am I bleeding profusely etc.) I told them that the answer to all the questions was no and I just needed to talk to a doctor urgently; but this wasn't good enough and I was told I would not receive any help unless I answered the questions all over again, wasting an extra 10 minutes. They finally said they had no record of a doctor calling me, was I sure but one would be in contact soon. It's been 90 minutes, I still haven't received a phone call and the pharmacy shuts soon. I know the NHS are overstretched and I am usually the first to make allowances but AIBU to begrudge the fact that I will most likely have to pay £££ on a taxi to spend hours in A&E tonight after either having an asthma attack or getting so close to one that I have no other option; when this could all be prevented by the doctor sending a prescription for one simple blue inhaler when she said she would? Also, has anyone got any tips on preventing asthma attacks/ making breathing easier without using an inhaler?
Lastly, please keep your fingers crossed for me that I get a call in the next 10 minutes!

Blimey, people really struggle to take responsibility for their own health, with a myriad of reasons and excuses. YAB(partly)U.

Thanks Louise the steroids usually sort it out within a few days so will hopefully be good as new for my little girls first Christmas!

Sammy yeah I have the same thing with inhalers. I use it maybe 5 times a year so forget about it, until I suddenly need it. Luckily I can usually find one. I did have to borrow one off a random stranger when I was 16 which was embarrassing!

It's totally not okay to neglect to send a prescription.

Mistakes happen, I wouldn't be happy but you are lucky the didn't Expect you to go to them to be checked really.

Glad you have got the medication sorted now,

ftm you can buy them over the counter, have been able to for 3 years. I'm not sure if its only Asda or all pharmacies. article from the BBC

this BBC article says they have been available over the counter since 2012

ftmsoon I thought the DH had done this a few years ago? Or is it just Asda? Or has it all stopped now?
I found the BBC link ^^ and one to Daily Mail, but iPad has decided not to do links.
Many pharmacists are also non medical prescribers and can therefore prescribe, or can issue in appropriate urgent situations.

They said I needed proof that I had been prescribed inhalers before. I said my partner could bring my brown steroid inhaler but that wasn't good enough apparently. I presume there's a huge problem with people pretending they're asthmatic so they can abuse the heavily addictive and dangerous substance that is the blue inhaler

I'm mildly asthmatic but get flare ups if I get a respiratory virus, so I do think you've been a bit daft! And you should be having the flu vaccination.

However it's dangerous to leave someone untreated if they are having an asthma attack (a shocking number of adults die every year from asthma), so it's pretty poor that you haven't received a call back. In your shoes I would have gone to a drop in emergency clinic or A&E by now - in my experience asthmatics having an attack consistently underestimate how badly their breathing is compromised.

sammy it's probably people selling them, but God knows why as I've never heard of inhaler abuse

Flu has a longer incubation period than a few days, so last year you already had the flu before you had the vaccine. Dont put it off next year!

The flu vaccine can't give you flu - however sometimes it doesn't fully prevent it.

You have asthma - it kills people.

You need to go back to your GP and get the flu jab, make sure you have a full stock of inhalers and a plan for what you do when you have a chest infection so you are prepared - this may be having a supply of steroids, upping your brown inhaler or something else.

But you can't muck about like this time - never be without a blue inhaler again!

Pharmacies can only give you an emergency supply of meds you've had before - so if it's not your regular pharmacy they will need proof. And yes there is an abuse value in inhalers! Some people like the shaky feeling you get and the cases of the standard ones apparently make great crack pipes

They handled it badly.

But ywbu to not have got the flu jab and to not have sorted your inhaler before now. If this had happened next week you would've had a much harder time getting the prescription filled and would've ended up in hospital.

But I'm glad it's sorted now and I suspect you'll not make the same mistake again. Hope you feel better soon

And yes there is an abuse value in inhalers! Some people like the shaky feeling you get and the cases of the standard ones apparently make great crack pipes
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Oh! Never thought of that, I guess any medication could be abused in any number of inventive ways if someone is that desperate. Thanks for everyone's replies; I have indeed learnt my lesson and am feeling a tad guilty, though I still maintain a doctor should send a prescription immediately if they tell you they will. But I've just had my first glorious puff on my long awaited inhaler and am already feeling tons better

Im also asthmatic (very mild - in fact no use of any inhalers for years)
I was refused flu jab (and swine flu jab)
with asthma any cold can go to your chest. Its not necessarily the flu of that yrs jab.
Caffeine can help so coffee and maybe tea or chocolate.
I can do online prescription requests. And the prescription can go to the pharmacy for filling. Some pharmacies deliver.
I find cough meds help keep the phlegm moving off the chest.
So its more a problem during pg or bf when you cant take stuff.
I do agree about nhs direct.
Dd had a high fever , they couldnt find my address so couldnt give any advice. Ended up at a&e/ooh.

You cannot get the flu from the flu jab.

The doctor probably passed it to admin staff for faxing. Where I work you need a PIN number to fax or use the photocopier. Doctors aren't issued with them. I don't consider it a very good use of a GP's time to be standing waiting for a dialling tone when there are 100+ people awaiting triage.

There may have been technological failure.

The chemist may have lost it.

Emailing or faxing scripts is risky medico legally. Could you not have picked the script up somewhere? This would be the norm where I work apart from the terminally ill and very rare exceptions.

I can't believe you only have one blue inhaler. To me, that's a bloody dangerous game to play. Asthma can (and does) kill.

I also have mild, well-controlled asthma, apart from in the winter (or after exercise sometimes); if I have a cold (like I've had for the past week), it heads for my chest and sticks there.

I currently have three inhalers in various stages of use - one in the car, one in my bedside drawer and one "spare" (currently by me on the sofa). I also have a prescription in my handbag, because the bedside drawer one is feeling a bit light, so it's likely to run out soon.

Next autumn get a flu jab and discuss longer term steroid 'preventer' inhalers with your GP. Well managed asthma should mean you are not so reliant on your ventolin inhaler.

are you using your brown inhaler? if you have one of these they are meant to be used regularly as a preventative measure to stop the symptoms getting too bad. no point having one if you don't use it as its a gradual build up of resistance not a quick fix. Yes have a flu jab they are free for asthmatics, its not a live vaccine so no way will it give you flu, that was a coincidence last time. take a bit more care of yourself and you will reduce your suffering, and save NHS a fortune in emergency treatments.

Interesting that some big companies seem to have got round the law in order to sell salbutamol. I was taught, albeit 10years ago now, it is one of the worst items to emergency supply because some people abuse the system and never have a GP review or use their preventer inhalers, leading to unnecessary hospital admissions and possibly deaths.
I do agree with OP that it took a ridiculous long time to fax a prescription, however we have no idea what else the Dr was dealing with that made him forget to do it.