Leaving home and moving to uni countdown

[Claymoreiron]

Is there a thread for this? In a matter of weeks many of us will be packing our DCs off to university. I am thrilled for my DS who has worked so hard and is so excited to start university life. However, I am also dreading it in equal measure and know that emotionally this transition will be tough for me.

How is everyone?

We started with this - average student spends split down by pots. https://www.savethestudent.org/money/student-budgeting/what-do-students-spend-their-money-on.html#average . Conveniently if you remove rent and bills, 10 months of these averages comes out to almost exactly a min maintenance loan.

It's not going to be perfect but it's a better starting point than a blank sheet of paper.

Think I need a new career in dog yoga.

Think I need a new career in dog yoga.
me too, sounds like a blissful way to pay the bills.

DD goes on Saturday, it’s rapidly becoming very real. DS has already gone back for his second year (early field trip) so the house will be quiet.

What a brilliant idea. Would it be massively cheating to take one camping in a tent (with hook up)? Asking for a friend of course.

Budget chat wise, my DD has had a job since 14 and so she sort of understands money and is careful with her money.
However she hasn't really had to buy food and drink much apart from college snacks and meal deals.
We have discussed how much we can give a week for food/other bits and she thinks it will be enough.
It's a campus uni so not so much in transport costs perhaps. I am reassured knowing she is sensible about spending but prepared for her to need a bit of flexibility while she works out her meals and shopping costs.

The drawer wasbt big enough on her original air fryer and she’s neurodiverse, so doesn’t like the other things cooking on her chips!

Sounds sensible to me 😄

Fair enough, I can understand that. DS has a good friend who is ND who zones his food for cooking and eating.

DS is dyspraxic so is clumsy and much more haphazard 🤣

Dd has had a phone call from her current GP today saying under no circumstances is she to register at a GP in her university city. She must stay with her home town gp as they know her history, they will do phone appts for her or she can travel back for big stuff.

Any small scale stuff or urgent stuff she can register as a temporary patient at a gp in the university city or go to a walk in.

fair enough if that’s what they think is best.

@YanTanTetheraPetheraBumfitt makes sense I suppose, good thing they told you!

That's good if that's what she wants. The no circumstances is a bit weird, I mean she can switch now even to another one in the area if she wanted to, a new doctor can learn a history. I mean I think most people see a different GP each time, so they are used to having to tell them it all iver again, which wouldn't be my preferred system as the same one each time (if they're good) can be so much better.

What did they say about the medications she's on? Like getting them to her etc.

Well this is what I don’t understand, Dd seems to think the GP,said either they can carry on prescribing her meds or she can get a GP at the new city to prescribe. No gp surgery is going to prescribe drugs for someone not on their books who they have no history for. 🤷‍♀️

doesn’t make sense. Dd has been asked to go in for a blood test tomorrow so will try and seek some clarification.

Well yes, they may think it's best but for whom? Call me cynical but I think they get paid by how many patients they have on the books. Someone who's registered with them but not there most of the time is likely a profitable "customer".

It makes sense to me for them to be registered where they spend most of their time, in a practice that specialises in young people.

Thay makes no sense, also you cannot be registered for more than one GP at a time. When you get a new GP they almost always make you have an appointment before prescribing the meds you have on repeat prescription. Definitely seek clarification tomorrow.

There aren't GPs that specialise in young people, as in a whole surgery doesn't do that. Sometimes a university has walk-in centres which are for minor acute issues, not prescribing repeat meds or managing a chronic condition. A few universities have a GP just for students and their dependants but those GPs won't necessarily have more training just that it's only available to students and their dependants, the GPs will be the same as a normal practice. A GP on their own, may have a special interest in pediatrics but not a whole pratice. Unless private, perhaps, not sure how that works really.

University semesters are only thirteen weeks long so if she comes home for the holidays she will be at home exactly the same amount of time as she is at university. So why move GP?

My DS has been already and DD is starting next year. I was heartbroken saying goodbye to DS but as time went on I actually couldn’t believe how much time they had off throughout the year. So they’re not really gone for 4 years, they just go for a few months at a time really! Their summers are very long too.

I don’t think Dd can in any way be described as a profitable customer for the gp surgery. She’s down there all the time 😁. Think they get paid less than £200 a year per patient. An average gp appointment costs the nhs £37. She’s down there at least once a month.

Our GP advised us not to change for dd either. He said he ‘shouldn’t be telling us that’ as the rules says she should change but it would be better for her ongoing healthcare and prescriptions to stay with our GP and post the meds down to her as needed. So we will probably just do that I think and she will have to go to the walk in if she needs anything urgent (but tbh realistically she does that here anyway as we can never get a same day appointment).

So she’s asked again this morning and the dispensary person is adamant if she tegisters as a temporary patient at uni a drs surgery there will prescribe her meds regularly. I can’t see it.

dd says she’ll try, and if they won’t she’ll register as a permanent patient and leave this dr surgery

I have no issue with her staying with the home GP, it's just the way they emphasised 'under no circumstances' which felt weird, as the advice is normally to switch and even if she wasn't going to uni but wanted to change she could. My point was they can't actually stop her but the way they emphasised it felt a bit OTT.

@YanTanTetheraPetheraBumfitt That is not true, only for emergency prescriptions can they do that - so you run out too early or like your somewhere else and you didn't bring enough etc. She can not be doing multiple emergency prescriptions each month, that's not allowed. Signing up to be a temporary patient is only for 12 weeks, which could work, but new GP surgeries tend to have a policy of having an appointment before they precribe repeat meds, as they need to check the history etc. Let her try and see what happens but make sure she gets a prescription before she goes so she has time to figure it out and she still has her meds.

@TheLivelyViper thanks. Yes I can’t believe she’d be able to repeatedly get repeat prescriptions as a temporary patient. She’s got two months worth of medication and is going to make contact with a gp surgery near her term address next week and if necessary will properly sign up.

I think this discussion shows an issue with how GPs work. Clearly it doesn’t make sense for students to be switching GPs twice, or more, each year. But those with chronic conditions do need continuity of care. It should be possible for a term time GP to take on ‘shared care ‘ with a home GP.

DD tried to register with a GP temporarily whilst at uni and wasn't allowed - you can only be registered at one GP at a time. She did switch initially and then switched back when she had glandular fever and tonsilitis in the Christmas holidays, and hasn't changed again since (going into fourth year now). She has about three different prescription medicines - when she's away she just gets them delivered to a pharmacy in her uni city.

I wrote this song for my son shortly after he left home - it helped me to feel that was in some way still protecting him, even though I couldn't be right there beside him: joyjefford.com/blessings

My dd has a dyspraxia diagnosis too! Although it impacts on her organisational and social communication skills - life is never dull 😂

Spent today vacuum packing duvet and pillows. So we can try to get them in DD’s car. Also bought a new mattress topper. She’s taking one plate, one bowl, some plastic bowls and new cutlery, but reduced what she had last year.

Does anyone else feel like it’s a lot of stuff!?