to think doctors don't read repeat prescriptions before signing them

[2shoescreepingthroughblood]

collected dd's today
I had asked for paracetamol, the doc knows dd and knows what she has(he precribed it for her a while back)
yet instead of liquid, he put soluble tablets!!
so he can't have read it can he, makes me think the receprionist, does them and he just signs them without looking.....
(it is ok as chemist will swap it)

I am lucky I have a good chemist who will just swap it over,
dd won't be able to swallow the soluble stuff, it isn't the same as the liquid. kind of bitty iynwim, I have enough trouble getting the liquid into her.

SomeGuy Thu 15-Oct-09 19:16:34 Add a message | Report post | Contact poster

"However if I just needed some paracetamol I would go out and buy it.

There is a difference between being a repeat prescription (which you ask for, the doctor doesn't tell you to get it) and an initial one."

But if you get a repeat prescription for paracetamol, this will usually be because you need to take it regularly, not as a one-off. This is not rare for children with chronic conditions. And it certainly adds up.

2 shoes how old is your daughter?

14(she has cp)

Someguy, the 'lowly paid clerical worker' ie; receptionist ,because who else could this possibly be applied to, always prints off the requested repeat presciptions and the dr signs them. So unfortunately your 'high level medical input' who, I assume is a doctor, has to be involved as they are the only ones who can sign them.

Signing off a few repeats scripts saves a lot of their time in the long run and it is part and parcel of their job.

Our GP wont prescribe anything you can get OTC!

But they are tight fisted profit driven prats

Different issue,but I am a paediatric nurse and we don't routinely issue 'take home' paracetamol or nurofen as the cost of prescribing it and issuing it in hospital would run ro considerably more than £1.50,when the salaries of all the people checking it are taken into account.
However,whilst most parents are perectly ok with this,anyone who could not buy some would be given a bottle.

OP is correct. I have a repeat prescription and it's important it is the right one, not an alternative version of the same drug. (Same drug but different formulation - this is clinically important with this particular medicine.)

My GP knows this, especially after a scary incident with a pushy pharmacist who tried to switch me without even bothering to check with the doc. And every time I put the repeat request in, I note it on the form, just to make sure.

Yet the other day when I picked up the meds, the pharmacist warned me the GP had prescribed the wrong one. This pharmacist is the one who fucked up, so he's now aware of the risks and had changed it back to the right formulation but still, very disappointing the GP could slip up when it's on my notes and I wrote it on the damn form!

(Pharmacists are encouraged by PCTs to switch patients to generic alternatives to save money. This is fine in most cases but not fine with my particular medicine.)

GPs do not pay for drugs (apart from one or two actually given within the Practice e.g. local anaesthetics). We are under pressure from PCTs to reduce prescribing costs, but paracetamol is dirt cheap.

edam strangely I have just had this with dd's epilepsy meds.
after half term we are trying the generic version(fingers crossed it is ok)
won't that please someguy and his ilk as they are way cheaper than what she is on and has been on for 8 years.

2shoescreepingthroug... quite often the receptionists do the scripts and the doctor just signs it. Its not unreasonable to give soluble paras to a child (but i dont know her age) so to the doc ,the prescription would look ok.
If scripts are obviously wrong a good dispenser or pharmacist would pick up the mistake before you got your meds anyway.

edam..... pct do not encourage pharmacists to swap to generics as pharmacists have to dispense exactly whats on the prescription,so if its a branded product ,a generic cannot be substituted without the doc rewriting the script.

Its the docs who are being encoraged to use generics as it keeps their budgets down.

MrsJamesMartin
nurse prescribers can now sign prescriptions for alot of basic meds,so it is not all down to the GP

2shoescreepingthroug...medicines for epilepsy should not be changed once the patient is established on a particular brand...ie Epilim...if they are changed it can affect the patient as the bio availabilty of the drugs vary from generic to brand and from brand to brand too.

if she is well maintained on one product i would kick up a fuss as they are not supposed to be changed once they are stabilised

No OP, YANBU.

Regardless of medication type/who its for/what its for etc... IMO there should NEVER be even the slightest most minor mistake made. Ever.

nurse prescribers shouldn't be signing repeat medication scripts, only those they have generated scripts themselves for a specific reason.

alypaly I have spoken to her consultant, she feels that as dd is on such a high dose and so controlled, it is unlikely to affect her.

At least it was for paracetamol & not something different.

I assume your daughterisn´t old enough for soluble?

How can a pharmacist change it?

If you noticed at the drs, couldn´t you get it changed then?

Perhaps soluble is cheaper?

Why can´t your daughter swallow soluble-not able to physically or just doesn´t like it?

@ someguys comments.

£1.50 is for a very small bottle of the stuff. They don't last long if it's used reguarly.

And as the OP has pointed our her DD needs it regularly. Those costs soon add up dramatically.

Not that small:
www.chemistdirect.co.uk/paracetamol-infant-sugar-free-suspension-3-months_1_10309.html
or stronger version for £2 www.chemistdirect.co.uk/paracetamol-6-years-suspension-orange_1_10310.html

well the chemist gave me 3 bottles of the stuff........
womdered how long until someguy c&p@d

well said about everything someguy

alypaly, exactly, it is bloody dangerous to switch patients on epilepsy meds between products. But my pharmacist did. Hence the row, an apology from the surgery (although they had done nothing wrong) hence pharmacist spotting this time that GP had issued the wrong scrip (for generic, not branded Lamictal) despite me pointing this out very clearly on the repeat request.

jasper why