Why do GPs cancel repeat prescriptions?

[KatyMac]

Without telling you, or asking you or letting you know in any way

So when you go to get a repeat (that you have had for some time & are anticipating being on until you are dead) and it isn't on the list you think its a blip and add it in manually

Ring 3 days later to see where it is & get told it's been cancelled? With no notes on the system why

I mean why? What do they gain other than an irate patient?

I have no idea, irritating isn't it. If you need a medication review they should inform you!

When this happened to my son I rang and asked for a pharmacy ring back.
He said ‘we thought he didn’t need it anymore’
I said ‘he has been on it since he was 13months and will be on it, in some form, until he dies as it is his cardiac drug, prescribed by his specialist consultant and surgeon’
The pharmacist said ‘Oh I guess I can reinstate it then’
Yes please I said…

Mine keep doing it with my asthma inhalers!

Or just decide to decrease your dose by 2/3 seemingly just for shits and giggles.
My GP seems to think they know more about obscure hormonal disorder than consultant in endocrinology.

Is it to ensure you are engaged with your treatment?

Happened to DH last year, I said as Papworth prescribed it maybe they'd like input on cancelling it

Phone call with Papworth; umm well actually we'd quite like you to continue taking it - maybe we should explain to the gp how it's keeping you alive

I would actually like to know why, what the thought process or admin process is?

Is it money saving? Or do they think you are wasting it?

Sorry to you and those this is happening too. Also had issues here after breast cancer with Tamoxifen which I will need for 5 or 10 years. They insisted for ages could only prescribe for one month at a time and its often out of stock if you want one brand, this is apparently money saving. Not sure how it saves money but probably some 20ish something health economist has made a model with no experience of health problems which some government policy person has adopted. There's no way it saves money though for long-term essential drugs which are keeping people alive, unless they let them die. After several distressed phone calls I have managed to get it for 3 months at a time but we also have the random cancellations as well and also the not telling you they have renewed it. You can really see why UK survival rates are lower than other countries. If I wasn't alert and didn't have DH might well have not got the treatment I needed.

It’s nothing to do with money saving.
all drugs need reauthorised eventually. Some practices will automatically do this, some will only do after a review.
also depends on the medication.
add to that stock issues, manufacturer changes or discontinued products.

it’s a fecking nightmare for all involved!

Surely a text saying do you still want your hrt if so get in touch for a review would be less stressful all round than cancelling the repeat prescription?

It's only happened to me once and it was because my gp wanted to discuss all my medication with me and catch up with me and see how I was getting on but there had been some sort of cock up and the meds had been paused or cancelled or something but they hadn't booked in a call.

I have the practice pharmacist always trying to get me to stop a drug that I was put on by an actual Consultant, they seem to think they know better 🙄

When you order a repeat prescription online with our practice, it gives you a countdown of how many more prescriptions you can order until you need a review, so plenty of notice. That seems a sensible way to do things. That said, our practice is fantastic in every way, very lucky.

Yes, it happens to me when they want to discuss / review / do a BP or blood test.

They're just being responsible in my experience. Yes, sending a message to explain why would be more sensible than just stopping and making you call / message to find out why but I appreciate the tech isn't always that slick and stopping gets the required action of me contacting them.

My medication repeats are timed so I can't order to early; if there is then a delay I am without medication

& no I can't get an immediate medication review

It could be that it needs "authorising" Where I worked drugs had 6 active repeats 6 X2 months so a year's worth. After that you'd have to manually ask for it. This was a trigger for an annual review. I would usually give authorise 2 months worth and then get reception to get you to come in for a review in the next 8 weeks.

In reality if you see that you have one repeat remaining when you order that should trigger you to book a review and after the review the drugs should be activated again but in practice it doesn't work like that for many reasons including that you probably haven't been told this as many GPs don't know what the ordering system looks like from the patient end...(I do as I have my own drugs to order) but I would never leave a patient without their meds...causes far too much work for patients and surgery if we did this.we have to be flexible if we can't give the appointments out as long as we feel it's safe.

It's so frustrating. With mine you can only order them seven days in advance, they take 3-5 working days to get to the pharmacy and then the medication is always out of stock

Then you get told off because your previously very well controlled hba1c level has gone up (as a direct result of weeks at a time with no bloody medication)

It's happened to me too recently. I called and ordered my repeat prescription. I had to wait 5 days to pick it up at the pharmacy, because the GO have a rule that we must pick up at the pharmacy and not in the surgery.
I go to the pharmacy. No record of it, so back on the phone to the surgery. Order placed again, review overridden.
A waste of my fucking time.

Repeat prescriptions are the bane of my existence. I've got about nine medications on there. The amount of administration I have to do is constant. Either they'll be refused for no reason, or not at the pharmacy when they're supposed to be, or put on review out of the blue, or this doctor or that starts questioning me about them (even when I've taken something for most of my adult life), or they want me to come in for something, or I have to speak to the receptionist about it, who then asks me to start ringing them every bloody morning trying to get an appointment (which really doesn't work for me, let alone for them!!), or I'm having to go to the pharmacy a few days a week, or I'm not well enough to go to the pharmacy so I'm desperately trying to work out how to do without X, or try to find someone to go for me.

I can't even use a prescription service because I don't need them all every time and I end up with huge amounts of unnecessary medication.

I wish I could throw them all in the bloody bin!

I am obviously very lucky with my GP surgery, sorry to hear all these stories.

Ours has a rule as well they will only represcribe very close to when you need them but it fails to take into account stock shortages and that the pharmacist has to try and get them in which often takes a few days and we have to contact a few pharmacists as well. Its a breast cancer prevention drug. GPs are very understaffed but their rules do not help matter and it says on their website that the 1 month rule is for money saving. I really feel for anyone vulnerable who doesn't have someone to help. Its just such a waste of everyone's time and very distressing when you struggle to get drugs keeping you alive. Not online here so you have to walk to GPs, drive round pharmacies, phone which is not easy to get through to, was initially taking around one day a month to get a breast cancer drug. But the patients time and distress is clearly not considered.

LloydsDirect let you choose which repeat prescriptions you want each time, and they deliver for free (ignore the paid delivery options).

It drives me up the wall.

I need blood tests every 3 months to monitor my meds. This is my cycle:
M1 - not on repeat because blood tests due (I've actually had them done but no one at the surgery has checked). Go into surgery to request meds and ask them to put on repeat.
M2 - not been put on repeat for some reason, so can't order on app. Go into surgery to request meds and ask them again to put on repeat.
M3 - 50:50 as to whether on repeat or not.
M4 - back to M1
And the cycle continues.

So only about 1 in 6 can actually be ordered on the app. And this is will go on for the rest of my life. Argh.

We need to arrange an annual review to keep repeats going. Up to us to organise, and you don’t get a reminder. They set everyone’s annual review to be at their birthday so you know what date it is.

No big deal, we just set a repeating reminder in the phone, a bit like the car MOT. No need to waste receptionist time sending reminders.