Heart attack

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Running Out of Medication

I don't know how I managed it, but I used up my last pravastatin tablet last night. I'm usually very up-to-date with my ordering of the repeat prescription. I usually give plenty of time to ring up Sainsbury's pharmacy to get them to contact the doctor' surgery in Beanhill so as to have the order made up. It takes around a week for the process to be completed. I set up this with them to cut down all the running around and thus make it simpler. It prevented me having to go to the surgery with either a form, filled out with the relevant medication (I have five items. Just as well I don't have to pay as I'm over 60. A single item now costs £7.85. So, in total I would have to pay something like £40 per month. And apparently this isn't for the cost of the actual medication, it's for administration costs. I shouldn't have to worry as I don't pay it. I remember when I first had my heart attack nearly eight years ago I was on sickness pay and I had to pay prescription charges. Seemed crazy when you think that the medication I am on actually keeps you alive. I left hospital and was given the bill for my prescription medication and had to go back to the hospital pharmacy to pay. I imagine that different hospitals run by different N.H.S. trusts or whatever don't all charge because when I was admitted to Milton Keynes Hospital for a short stay when I went in when I had  quite nasty attack of angina I didn't have to pay when I was discharged and they gave me a complete month's supply of medication.

I usually keep a check on my stocks of medication and then give Sainsbury's a telephone call and this, as I say, kick-starts the ordering process. I have, in the past, also ordered on-line which is just as easy and efficient. So it will now mean I will have to go direct to the surgery when it opens at 8 a.m. tomorrow and stand outside in the queue and get an appointment as soon as I can and get the doctor to give me a prescription there and then and go with the paperwork to the nearest pharmacy to get the medication. There is a pharmacy near the surgery in Beanhill and it will be easier to get it done there as it means not having to move the car. I had chosen Sainsbury's pharmacy to have the repeat prescription done because several months ago there was a problem with the isoborbide mononitrate when they couldn't obtain stocks due, I think, to a problem in the manufacturing process and it was difficult to get supplies and Sainsbury's was the one local pharmacy who seemed able to get supplies and so I set up my repeat prescription with them and they do seem the most efficient and there haven't been any problems up until now.

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