Can another GP change my prescription?

[CloseItAgain]

Due to long waits (18 months in the end) to see the gynaecologist about wanting testosterone as part of my hrt regime I went private with a designated menopause clinic.
For 12 months we tweaked my dosage until I stopped having symptoms and I've been doing really well. From suicidal to enjoying life again.
Following this I went to one of the gps at my surgery who was happy with the dosage and agreed to prescribe it to me.
All went well for a while until one of the other gps was on the repeat prescription rounds (all done through ask my gp or the nhs app) and decided that he wasn't happy with the dose I was on and declared that he didn't agree with it and wouldn't be allowing it to continue.
I was so stressed about it that I went back to the private clinic and ordered my meds through them.
I will be booking an appointment with the first gp and trying to sort it out but I don't want this every time I need to order a repeat. I did request the first doctor on my form but she must not have been in or on signing off the prescriptions the day i put my request in.

This happened to me once and my own GP said they aren’t supposed to do that. I would make a complaint to the practice or your regular GP.

Ffs. You need to complain. GP doing this without any consideration of the impact on the patient.

I've had it once on a repeat.

A locum refused to sign off my codeine for the month and recommended I tried mindfulness (twat).

Medication was prescribed 5 minutes later, after a robust conversation.

The same gp refused me statins until I had a blood test which would have been pointless as I'd run out. The receptionist I spoke to wasn't impressed and sorted the prescription out for me.
I did put in a complaint a while back about the way an appointment with my daughter was handled. I eventually emailed again threatening pals and got a reply saying they had 'missed' my email and they would get back to me. They haven't!

It's so irritating when GPs do this. It hasn't happened to me, but if it did, I would be asking them why they were second guessing the professional judgment of their colleague (in fact two colleagues in this case, the other NHS GP and the private one).

In fact they should of course second guess it if they think a patient is at risk (and the failure to ask questions about wrongdoing is an issue in the NHS) but they should discuss it with their colleague(s) before taking patient off medication the patient is happy with.

Not to drip feed but I've just remembered another incident with the same gp. At the beginning of starting hrt I was struggling massively with insomnia.
I was given a five day course of sleeping tablets which I used over the course of a month or two.
A while later I got stuck in the same cycle of insomnia so I went back onto ask my gp to request something to help. I was getting an hours sleep a night.
I didn't necessarily want the same thing but I didn't hear back. When I rang and asked the receptionist she looked and saw that he had put 'patient is becoming reliant on sleeping tablets' on the notes of the request. I asked her to check when I had had the first lot and it had been 11 months prior! Hardly reliant! She put the request in to another gp who did the same five day course. Which, again, I used over a long space of time.
I totally get they have to be cautious and I obviously don't want to rely on strong medication but it's a bit much!

I'd be a bit cautious about complaining. I once complained about a GP because he refused to do a specific blood test at a time when I was having regular monitoring for a discovered condition. His reasoning to me what that blood tests always varied from day to day so what was the point of doing them repeatedly!
On the advice of a neighbour who worked in the NHS, I complained to the Practice Manager and although I then got an immediate apology from the GP himself, I afterwards clearly became a 'marked woman' in the surgery and felt I was always greeted with an eye roll and a 'what does she want now' attitude. Very annoying and childish from professional people. I'm not surprised that people complain about them.

In the GP's defence - it's his name on the script and if anything were to go wrong (adverse reaction, whatever), it would be him having to defend why he signed and therefore agreed with the form.

Not saying that's you're wrong to be annoyed and could have been handled better, but it literally is his professional future on the line. Medicine isn't an exact science - yes there's lots of studies proving this that and the other, but we all know what suits one person doesn't suit another. This GP doesn't have a relationship with you and is therefore wary.

Fair point. It's just incredibly frustrating at a time when I've already been fighting to be heard about being peri-menopausal for four years. From being told I was too young and just dismissed etc if feels like a battle and I'm tired of having to fight.

The gp is responsible for any prescription he/she writes, so if they’re not happy with the dose, they can change it. They also don’t have to prescribe what a consultant (private or nhs) suggests. The consultants letter is effectively a recommendation, not mandatory.

I've had this - a GP wasn't happy with my hospital-prescribed epilepsy medication as I was "malingering" and he wasn't playing into that.

Sadly for him it ended up with being severely injured during a seizure, having the email trail and him ending up in front of the GMC reported by the hospital.

Wanker.

I totally get that but i wonder if I can just get her to sign off on them? Surely it can't be changed back and forth?

I wouldn't put in a complaint per se, but I would email the practice manager asking about the basis behind such a refusal and the policy to which it refers. I would want to be very clear on the reasoning behind why my medication was suddenly refused and what the odds were of it happening again.
You will very quick find out if there was a genuine reason behind such a refusal or not.
Then you can decide whether or not you want to escalate it to a complaint.