After a triple bereavement in May, my mate goes to the doc with anxiety. She has a history of it and is recorded as ‘vulnerable’. No help provided until
last week.
5 months on, she has lost 3 stone and can’t leave the house - there’s been no meds she can take yet.
This is a sample day of what she’s had to fight:
- video consult was 25 Min late (and short) because consultant (private cos no nhs) hadn’t been told it was online after only 3 calls from patient as reminder.
- Prescribed medications supplied with no dosing list. Instructions on pharmacy packets would have led to an overdose/SSRI syndrome. Patient has not overdosed, thanks to Google, but cannot start urgent meds.
- Other medication late/not suitable as doesn’t work and was not as discussed - she needs the right meds to break starvation cycle.
- Letter to GP that contained dosing list was tracked down by patient in absence of instructions to patient with dosing instructions. Psych had said he’d written to patient but no letter arrived/was on file.
- GP had not received/responded to letter.
- Independent Pharmacist as arranged by patient will help work out what daily meds are to be taken
- Patient has been the only person who is actioning - well, fighting - to sort this out.
- patient has deteriorated and is now only 150 calories a day thanks to these problems. Patient has had to take more Valium than prescribed to be coherent enough to tackle that day’s errors/omissions.
Patient is weakened by flailing to make hours of calls daily - struggling to stay alive against the onslaught of neglect.
The nurse called to see her but didn’t knock and she missed him.