GP practice will not add HRT to my repeat prescriptions

[TheGander]

For some reason which I really don’t grasp my HRT is not on my repeat prescriptions, although I have requested this is the past. This means I cannot order it via my NHS app. I have been ringing the pharmacy attached to the practice since last Friday, still no prescription. I have run out. Does anyone else experience the same issues?

I had to have a 3 month review until a year. It is now on repeat prescription.

Annual review here at my GP in Scotland otherwise it's repeat prescription

Mine wouldn't do it until I had been on HRT for a year, I had a review and then they put it on repeat, but only for a year and then I'm to have another review.

They didn't offer to put it on prescription, I sent a very pissed off email after having a nightmare trying to get my next prescription before running out, considering I can't pop in during working hours it became impossible.

I had to speak to the GP the first renewal at 3 months, then again at 1 year. Now I have annual reviews but other than that it's on 3 monthly repeat.

Thank you everyone, there must be a policy about 3 monthly and then yearly reviews then. I’ve been on it for more than a year without any real review. I’m going to make an appointment to try and get to the bottom of this.

Mine won’t either but the practice nurse will see me and prescribe after a few checks. She is usually much easier to get an appointment with.

Mine is on 3 month repeat but the patches often don’t stay stuck for the required duration so I always have a box that’s used for spares to replace them from, and hence sometimes I need to order more frequently. And then they had a strop at me despite me explaining this in the order comments 🙄

Have you been to the pharmacy and asked them? They can request the repeat afaik

I made an appointment today with a GP to request the HRT. The blockage was I hadn’t provided a BP reading since May. But no one communicated that to me. I have the prescription now. I have written to the practice manager asking for my HRT and BP meds to be added to my repeats on the NHS app so I can order remotely. We’ll see what happens! Thanks to every one who posted.

Yes I did and the pharmacy requested it but the GP never prescribed it, until I made an appointment with the GP to request it.

Mine isn't on the app as a repeat. We can't order repeats on the phone so I go in in person and speak to the receptionist. Having been getting six months worth at a time I then got 1 month. I mentioned that at that rate I'd be in talking to them every 4 week and got 3 months this time but I still can't get them on the app.

There seems to be a will not to make it too easy. I wonder if it’s anxiety about side effects including breast cancer. The GP asked me if I’d had my latest mammography before she’d re-prescribe.

I come from a huge family with zero breast cancer history and no genetic type cancers in general but lots of osteoporosis so for me I'm happy to take the tiny increased risk. I don't mind popping into the Dr for my repeat either as I walk past the door in open hours several times a week but I'm sure it's not a great use of either gp receptionist or pharmacists time to make me get a prescription in the flesh every four weeks!

@TheGander that is exactly the sort of thing my practice does too! They take things off repeat without consultation or don’t tell you that you have to attend a review or submit blood pressure reading etc! I had a mega bad eczema flare up and ordered creams but they only send one of the two (the weaker one which wasn’t cutting it) to the pharmacy because the other had been taken off my repeats……look at my medical record ffs, I’ve been suffering with eczema since I was 5 and had this cream prescribed for years!! Or pick up the telephone and ring me rather than ignoring the request 🤬

My oestrogen is on my repeat but not my progesterone (Cyclogest is a ‘red list’ item). I have to chase it up every time I need a prescription and they only give me enough for 6 weeks at a time. Last time I requested a repeat on the app (a week before it was due) I was told it was declined because I needed a review. I then had to wait five weeks for an appointment which meant no HRT for a month. It’s infuriating.

I have to have a review every 3 months with the nurse which seems overkill since I've been on the same dose for a few years now.

This is so interesting. I’ve been on HRT for 2 years now and haven’t had a single review during that time, medication on repeat.

This is most likely to be about how you pay for it. If its a repeat script you can't use the new prepayment, so GP surgeries are having to use a different administration system. You can probably arrange to email them for a repeat , get your prepayment certificate online and it works out much cheaper . You just need to be organised and order early

A helpful workaround is to sign up for an online pharmacy (I use 'well') and use their app to request online. Give your BP and weight via the text box each time you ask for it and you mighty have fewer issues.

That’s interesting re the online pharmacy @Penelope1703 .
I have checked the nice guidelines, they state HRT should be reviewed after 3 months and thereafter annually, with a blood pressure check. That’s why they wouldn’t prescribe I imagine.