Prescriptions

[DustyLee123]

My DM is getting forgetful ,and it frustrates and upsets her. Yet again this weekend she has run out of medications. She asked the pharmacy if they could have hers on constant repeat prescription as they are only providing 28 days at a time, she was told no, she had to keep ringing to request.
Surely not, is there something I should be asking for?

I don't know if it would help, but I do mine online. If you held all the log in details for her? Is prescriptions via the post still a thing? Not that we get regular deliveries...

What medication is it, is it in a doset or blister pack. I would ring the pharmacist and ask why they only lsupply month at a time, is it because they are concerned she gets it wrong. You can also speak to her gp and say she is getting forgetful, there may be a community medicines nurse who can help.

My mum got to this point and I just quietly took over the task. You’ll likely be needing to manage her meds at some point fairly soon in any event.

Ask the doctor on her behalf to do a batch prescription. The doctor can send six (or twelve) prescriptions to the pharmacy, and the pharmacy should dispense them every twenty eight days.

Or ask the doctor for two monthly prescriptions.

My GPs do an automatic repeat: so useful! I've never come across it anywhere else, so sorry I don't know what to ask for. But it's the GP practice who you need to ask.

Yeah, I did mum’s for her. If it’s every 28 days, you’ll know when to phone. My mum’s surgery would deliver to her house which helped.

I get more than 28 days a time at my practice.

I do my mum's online for her.

If she's getting forgetful, she needs a memory assessment now.

I do mine on line . Ask for what l want with GP, it gets sent to Pharmacy2U, Postman delivers a few days later. Worked well for a few years now.

The system for requests varies from place to place, best to contact the surgery directly to ask what they prefer.
Where I live the pharmacy is able to request the next prescription directly from the surgery every 28 days. Just over the county border the pharmacies are not permitted to do that as the local CCG felt it was being abused and items over-ordered.
Not all surgeries routinely use the batch prescribing system so that may or may not be an option.
28 day prescribing is the recommended standard for many reasons, mainly to do with reducing hoarding and waste of medications supplied by the NHS.
The most widely available option is to sign up to one of the apps with your mums details (and permission) and then it’s easy to order for her, you can set reminders to do it and then it will go straight through to her nominated pharmacy. Many will then text to let you know that it is ready to collect.
So there’s not a single easy solution but hopefully if you speak to her surgery you will be able to find out what works best in her area.

28 day prescribing is the recommended standard for many reasons, mainly to do with reducing hoarding and waste of medications supplied by the NHS. and never mind the other costs - 3 x GP time authorising the prescription, 3 x pharmacists time, 3 x pharmacist’s assistant time, 3 x processing time of prescription and exemption from charges. (I get all mine 3 monthly)

An update that might be helpful for others. We spoke to the pharmacy person working in the GP surgery who has put it on an automatic renewal, so the tablets are now arriving without having to do anything.
Its amazing what you can get when you’ve been told it can’t be done.