To want to put in a formal complaint to my gp practice?

[Hellbentwellwent]

I’ve had an awful bloody day and am feeling really let down and upset. I had major gynae surgery last week, radical hysterectomy with extensive excision of deep infiltrating endometriosis, they removed my uterus, cervix, bother ovaries and tubes and a large area of my pelvic wall - not insubstantial surgery.

I was sent home with a catheter in as my bladder was traumatised in surgery. Catheter was removed on Monday and I was asked to go back to see my consultant today for a bladder scan to make sure it was fully emptying. Scan today was all good but they did a dip test and I have an infection so consultant wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic and a script for more painkillers (30/500 cocodamol) as I’ve run out and in a fair bit of pain

Husband was with me so we drove from the hospital to our gp surgery, the system is ridiculous in the first place. Because it’s a script from the hospital it needs to be taken to the gp surgery so one of their doctors can re write the script to take to the chemists. We’re in NI if that’s relevant as I know our system is different that across the water. Dh left me in the car as I was feeling shite and took the script up to reception, then called me to say the receptionist was saying it would be 48hrs before a gp could write the script.

Wtf??

For starters that bollocks because we did the same last week when I was initially released with a script for hrt, dh brought it round in the afternoon and collected it later that day.

Secondly it’s bollocks because I know they have a prescribing gp every afternoon for this purpose and for repeat prescriptions.

Thirdly is bollocks for someone who is post operative to have been seen by a surgical consultant and diagnosed with an infection be left to wait 48 fucking hours for antibiotics because a non medically trained receptionist seemed to be under the impression of it had been urgent then they’d have dispensed the antibiotic at the hospital... which she said to dh repeatedly....

I’m beyond livid.

Poor dh has been running about like a blue arsed fly trying to sort it, what if I didn’t have any help? I can’t drive for 6 weeks, I’m in pain and feeling pretty ducking vunerable.

I love our nhs and I appreciate how much pressure it’s under but the gate keeping at gp surgeries is a liability.

Anyone want to help me draft a letter of complaint to the practice manager about the level of service the receptionist provided. FWIW I’m medically trained, changed career path eons ago and think it’s beyond appalling that a receptionist with no medical training seems to think she can override the recommendation of a consultant.

Go easy on me... I’ve just had major surgery and been plunged into surgical menopause....

I’m in n.ireland too - I think we may possibly have been at the same private hospital ( don’t worry not this time I don’t know who you are) but I have had treatment at both my local hospital and the private hospital under the same consultant - when treated by the NHS I was giving the tablets there and then - when private he told me to do the same as you - he didn’t seem to think the gp would pose a problem - I rang the gp before coming in as my gp screens on the phone - they allowed me in that instance to bring in the script and I had it after 2pm - they are not usually so accommodating !

I hope you feel better soon and get the antibiotics ASAP!

I don’t know if other surgeries have pharmacists in them? Mine certainly doesn’t...

@CI1578

A GP might say no for many reasons, eg if they think the consultant has prescribed something inappropriately or the suggested meds contain something a patient is allergic to (which a consultant might not know). If a GP issues a prescription it is in their name and on their head if something goes wrong and consultants aren’t infallible

Of course you’re correct in that. I should have said—thought it was implicit, but it probably wasn’t—that I was referring to a situation in which it was clear the prescription was appropriate and needed urgently. I’m appalled by the suggestion that an urgent prescription might not be provided by a GP simply because he/she believes it should have been written up in the hospital by somebody else. Based on my own recent experiences of ‘pass the parcel’ in the NHS I can entirely see that happening.

Just a quick response before I go to bed for the night, not sure why everyone is arguing over why the gp said no to issuing the script, the gp was never given the script! The receptionist refused to pass it on, despite there being a gp there in the afternoon for the sole purpose of writing prescriptions left by phone order on their phone service for repeat prescriptions, dh had this confirmed by the pharmacist who called on our behalf to try and get it issued. Receptionist took the prescription off my husband, and yes it was a prescription not a note of advice, dh went to the pharmacist in distress to see if he could pay privately for the prescription but they couldn’t dispense as the receptionist had it so they phoned her and she confirmed there was a gp writing scripts that afternoon. Pharmacist asked dh to leave his number with them and they’d call him after they’d chased it. Pharmacist called dh later to tell him that they’d been on to the practice and they’d advised if he called down at 5.30 it would be ready. When he went down the receptionist just said she’s been too busy and cited ‘workload’ so it wasn’t even given to the gp to rewrite

I’ll be calling for a duty doctors phone consult first thing in the morning, and making a complaint to the practice manager. I’ll also call my consultants secretary and complain to her, maybe a complaint from a consultant might have more sway than mine will.

Complain about the hospital, not the GP. The hospital failed in your care.

It's the gp surgery at fault
OP has clarified!

I work in a GP practice and this happens a lot! Many patients are sent home without the medication they need and we have to run around sorting them out at the last minute, sometimes for dressings/equipment etc that the chemist need to order in.

We don’t re-write private prescriptions as the patient has opted to go private which include paying the private prescription charges but we would re-write an ordinary hospital (NHS) script. We have to or the patient would be left in the lurch like the OP.

YANBU. Definitely the GP’s surgery at fault. Get your DH to go in first thing tomorrow to deliver hand written letter to practice manager personally. Do not allow him to move until you have your drugs. I had something similar when the receptionist refused to ask a GP for an emergency prescription for an epipen - I had been told to go immediately by my local pharmacy. I refused to move and demanded very loudly to speak to the practice manager. It worked !

Lots of people have said the medication should be provided by the hospital pharmacy as it was a prescription written by the consultant. Can you let us know why that wasn't the case? How do they provide you with your meds post surgery if they don't dispense? Do they not have a pharmacy at all? Sounds like a terrible system if a private hospital can't issue you antibiotics considering you had your surgery done there. Hope you get your medication soon and feel better.

God this happened to me when I was pregnant. Sorry to hear it happens in more areas than Central Scotland.

I needed insulin and they wouldn't give me it for 48 hours (insulin had been changed)

I know NI is a different system to England but this kind of thing is becoming more common everywhere as hospitals increasingly try to fob more and more work and expense onto GPs
It sounds as though the receptionist has been awkward and not done the right thing but the surgery should not be put in that position of being asked to supply medication urgently, for treatment and diagnosis made by someone else, in the first place. If medication was needed on discharge the hospital should have issued it or supplied a prescription for a high street chemist to dispense

@hereiamagain84 I'd be surprised if your GP surgery doesn't have a practice pharmacist, there's been a big roll out of the service over the past couple of years in NI and pretty much every surgery has one now, with some surgeries due to be topped up with additional pharmacist hours next year.

Unless you have a lot of outpatient appointments, hospital admissions, take a lot of medications etc then you might not come into contact with them.

Currently doing my non-medical prescribing course.

The person who writes the prescription is the person who is responsible if anything happens to the patient as a result of taking the medication.

If you are writing the prescription then you assess the patient, you use your clinical reasoning skills to consider differential diagnosis, you discuss the treatment options with the patient and come to a shared agreement, and you put in place safety netting if things get worse or don’t improve. You write the prescription and then you document this process in the notes. This is how prescriptions should come about, not by a frazzled GP scribbling or printing out something for someone they have never laid eyes on.

GPs are not script writing bitches for consultants. At the very least, if it in the patient's best interest that the GP takes over their management, they send a letter to the GP detailing the outcome and recommendations following the assessment or procedure.

I'm sorry that you have suffered because of this idiotic system OP, but as several other posters have pointed out the fault lies with the consultant, not the GP.

I’m really suprised you weren’t advised to take it to the hospital pharmacy @Hellbentwellwent

Hospital prescriptions are designed for dispensing in house. You shouldn’t have to take it to your GP.

OP a prescription from a private doctor can be taken to any pharmacy, you just pay the list price of the drug rather than the NHS charge.

@wintertime6 it definitely doesn’t. We got a msk physio and there is supposed to be a sw but it’s not been filled yet. Unfortunately I have been with the gp quite a bit in the last 12months! I actually do know a pharmacist in another health centre now that I think about it...but she works in a health centre (so there’s around 4 practices in it) my surgery is just my practice maybe that’s the difference

It's the secretary at fault here especially if there is someone in just to write prescriptions who the hell is she to decide someone with a post operative infection should not have antibiotics she should do her job pass it up the chain

@hereiamagain84 I'm really surprised at that, at this point all practices in NI should have a pharmacist covering at least some sessions each week, the final wave of recruitment next year is just to give some surgeries additional pharmacist hours.

OP that is absolutely shocking. I work for the NHS and that breaks my heart. Please, on behalf of all of us who abhor this kind of wankery, please write to complain and take it as high as you can. Makes my blood boil

Just out of curiosity, what's the difference in cost of a private prescription over an NHS one for the drugs you were prescribed? Whilst I have every sympathy for your predicament, you chose to go private and now want to jump the queue in the NHS because you were not given your meds at the private hospital. That's the root problem here.
I'm actually in agreement with the GP practice in this instance. And actually, I believe that anyone taking a private prescription to an NHS GP should pay them for a private appointment!
If you had phoned the GP asking for an urgent repeat prescription that could not wait the usual 48 hours (e.g. For insulin) then I'm sure they would have accommodated you. But that wasn't the case here. It was a private prescription issued by a different doctor. The GP would have had to see you in order to reissue an NHS prescription. The receptionist may well have been told not to just accept private prescriptions out of the 48 hour rule. It's unfortunate that they told the pharmacist that it would be ready at a particular time and it wasn't. As a private patient accessing an NHS service you would have been at the bottom of the queue, and quite rightly so. It's unfair on an NHS service to be expected to also provide a service to private patients.
The person at fault here is the consultant for not actually giving you the drugs at hospital.

Having just read a bit about the system on NI, it would seem that NHS prescriptions there are free and also that the pharmacist can actually deal with a private prescription directly, it doesn't require it to be converted to an NHS one. The only reason for doing this is for the patient to avoid paying for it.
If this is the case, then the OP is most certainly BU!

Is there not a pharmacy at the hospital to collect the hospital prescriptions from xxxyou poor thing

There are some really concerning situations with patients passing between hospitals and community care and falling through the cracks. Patients are often treated in hospitals and told to see a GP within some time frame that isn't possible with GP appointments these days. You and your DH are being assertive, there are vulnerable people without advocates who wouldn't be and would end up going without treatment.

In defence of the receptionist they aren't medically trained, they can't really make a decision on which cases are urgent and they will get multiple patients everyday demanding urgent treatment for routine issues.

It's a crap system, if the hospital doesn't have a pharmacy they should at least signpost to a pharmacy that can dispense your prescription rather than fobbing you off to the GP

I'm in a CMHT and our doctors ask the GP to do the prescribing on their advice. Its to do with budgets etc. BUT this is for routine meds reviews. An FP10 can be given if the medication needs immediately.

Re the private patient go to bottom of queue argument. Surely, the OP by going private has actually saved the NHS money. She has contributed to the NHS through her taxes (I assume) but has chosen to get speedier treatment by paying for it. So freeing up a bed for an NHS patient on the waiting list.

If OP then needs painkillers as a result, well doesn't she as a taxpayer have the same right to them on the NHS as any other citizen?

What is the difference in cost between a private prescription and an NHS?

That totally varies depending on the drug prescribed. It can be less - some meds cost pennies, it can be massively more - into the thousands.

Plus many pharmacies will charge you something for their time in issuing it.

For some post-op antibiotics it would more than likely be less or equivalent to an NHS prescription.

Really the consultant should have advised you to take it to a pharmacy rather than your GP and just get it issued there and then, unless he had prescribed something £££ which is unlikely.

I agree that the hospital should be able to write prescriptions that can be used without GP input, stuff like this is why the NHS is on its knees.

But that's not your fault.

I think either your dh or you should just knock directly on the door of the gp working and just ask them to do it.

Then complain personally about the idiot comouter says no receptionist who can't apply common sense or humanity.