Prescriptions for long term cruising

[surfernan]

If covid allows we intend to cruise Scotland for 5 months this summer. Our gp will only write a batch of 12 one month prescriptions which are sent electronically to the chemist for us to get monthly. They will only give us a month at a time.
Once we are off we dont want to keep returning and dont really know where we will be to get things sent each time. In the paast the gp has written a 6 month private prescription which made things easy but now they wont. How do others manage ? I dont mind paying as it is a minimum of a 2 day round trip home.

 

[colind3782]

Get someone to pick up your prescription and send it on to you post restante?

 

[scruff]

Get your gp send the prescription to whatever pharmacy in Scotland you happen to be near each month?

 

[LadyInBed]

Sounds like you need to have a serious word or two with your GP!
For long term scripts I asked my Doc if I could go onto two month scripts as I went off sailing and he agreed.
When I went off for five months to Spain then Portugal several months before I went I reordered for two months every month to build up a stock. It worked well.

 

[Gary Fox]

GP's are definitely, legally allowed to prescrible you 3 months' supply in advance, so if cruising, you only need to visit a chemist 4 times a year. I asked and was told this specifically by my last GP.
However, many GP's refuse to do this for their own mysterious reasons. My new one refuses, point blank, to go over a month. Try asking another GP in the same practice? You are allowed to chop and change, as you see fit.
If the drug is temporary addictive pain killers, or perishable, it would make sense I guess, there is no other good reason though.
You can get a lot of things online, with legally valid online prescriptions, although it's a bit pricey.

 

[newtothis]

Don't know if it helps, but if you use something like Pharmacy2U, they handle the prescription side of things and send it to wherever you want them to. I guess it requires a friendly marina office that you know you're going to be visiting for a few days, but better than a trip home.

 

[rotrax]

Sounds like you need to have a serious word or two with your GP!
For long term scripts I asked my Doc if I could go onto two month scripts as I went off sailing and he agreed.
When I went off for five months to Spain then Portugal several months before I went I reordered for two months every month to build up a stock. It worked well.

Exactly what we do.

If you have any hassle, ask to see the practice manager.

Good idea to ask your Dentist for a precription for dental antibiotics in case of toothache when at sea. Our Dentist said she thought it was a great idea and we now have a one week course in the first aid kit.

 

[Gary Fox]

Exactly what we do.

If you have any hassle, ask to see the practice manager.

Good idea to ask your Dentist for a precription for dental antibiotics in case of toothache when at sea. Our Dentist said she thought it was a great idea and we now have a one week course in the first aid kit.

Excellent idea, the abscess pills.

 

[awol]

Excellent idea, the abscess pills.

Always best washed down by alcohol. ?

 

[ashtead]

I wouldn’t mind betting this is driven by the GP desire to drive down the costs to their practice (even if private prescription) Leaving hospital recently I was prescribed 7 days supply of a drug on basis my London consultant said my GP would prescribe further drugs . Farce soon developed when GP practice refused me drugs and referred me to local hospital to move costs there who referred me back to GP. As supplies were running short to cut a long tale short as it were ,contacted consultant and he prescribed via Pharmacie who after taking my card details delivered next day. Cost was less than £100 but it seemed to me quite clear there was a cost saving attitude by the GP. I see you said it was a private prescription so I can only suggest you change GP ASAP if yours has some new cost containment agenda . GPs want patients who don’t need drugs etc but will give up smoking, and satisfy other targets in summary thereby generating increased personal profits for them as partners. Remember GPs are all self employed as a private practice with one captive client in NHS in summary as opposed to actual employees which drives much of their behaviour.
I have no difficulty with my dentist who was happy to prescribe drugs after a free telephone consultation and for these to be collected from local pharmacy during lockdown.

 

[CLP]

I have simply taken the most recent medication issue sheet I have with me into a local pharmacy and explained I'm on holiday. They've carried out a check with the GP's surgery and have issued the medicine straight away.

 

[dansaskip]

If you have explained the position to your doctor and he still refuses he is being unreasonable. In a similar situation I had no problems getting 6 months supply from my GP. As others have said have a word with the practise manager/put in a complaint about them withholding needed medication/or get a different GP.

 

[oldbloke]

As an ex GP , I will partially stand up for GPS. Your drugs don't cost the doctor anything. However they are under pressure to prescribe monthly only as "best practice " and the percentage of monthly scrips issued is monitored and money does flow.
The logic is to try and prevent the cupboards full of unused drugs that are too often found, and also the great waste if a 6 month supply is made redundant by a change of regime.
On the other hand, I am with the sufernan, I am on a stable regime of one low dose antihypertensive, I monitor my BP and submit the results. They do issue longer scrips on specific request but it is still a pain.
I would formally write with your concerns and an itinerary. Assuming that there is no clinical reason , (it wouldn't be reasonable to ask for 6 months of unmonitored warfarin or a large bucket of morphine) they have a duty to arrange a supply. If stroppy then escalate to a formal complaint.

 

[ashtead]

So more monthly scrips mean more prize money for GPs then surely Dr OB ?

 

[oldbloke]

Gp practice income is a massively complicated process and there are a lot of "quality" boxes that have to be ticked, quite often with pretty high levels of compliance before any points are scored. Mostly it is good stuff but sometimes the process felt more important than the patient.

 

[johnalison]

The rules can be a bit vague, and problems can arise when the doctor doesn't feel like being helpful. I have always tried to negotiate by being as pleasant as possible and for many years took £750 of medically prescribed stuff for my three-month cruises abroad. It helped that my GP’s father was a sailor. Five months is a long time, but if the OP is going to be in the country, he is perfectly entitled to have his medication and it is his doctor’s responsibility to help him.

 

[dom]

I have always tried to negotiate by being as pleasant as possible and for many years took £750 of medically prescribed stuff for my three-month cruises abroad. It helped that my GP’s father was a sailor.....

Can you not just get what you want?

 

[awol]

Coming to Scotland to have your English NHS prescriptions dispensed means, unless you qualify otherwise, you will have to pay unlike the Scots, Irish and Welsh who are all entitled to free prescriptions. The message is top-up at home before crossing the border to England.

 

[bikedaft]

I wouldn’t mind betting this is driven by the GP desire to drive down the costs to their practice (even if private prescription) Leaving hospital recently I was prescribed 7 days supply of a drug on basis my London consultant said my GP would prescribe further drugs . Farce soon developed when GP practice refused me drugs and referred me to local hospital to move costs there who referred me back to GP. As supplies were running short to cut a long tale short as it were ,contacted consultant and he prescribed via Pharmacie who after taking my card details delivered next day. Cost was less than £100 but it seemed to me quite clear there was a cost saving attitude by the GP. I see you said it was a private prescription so I can only suggest you change GP ASAP if yours has some new cost containment agenda . GPs want patients who don’t need drugs etc but will give up smoking, and satisfy other targets in summary thereby generating increased personal profits for them as partners. Remember GPs are all self employed as a private practice with one captive client in NHS in summary as opposed to actual employees which drives much of their behaviour.
I have no difficulty with my dentist who was happy to prescribe drugs after a free telephone consultation and for these to be collected from local pharmacy during lockdown.

it's more about workload than costs. in particular hospital discharges(!)

we (GP's) are still advised to prescribe only 28 days supply. all the practices i know give 56, simply because it halves our script signing. it costs the chemist when we do this as they are paid per item, so they are unhappy, as their income is halved. it makes no difference to our budget whether we prescribe 28, 56, 112, 224 at a time etc, as the yearly cost is the same. unless something is stopped, then there is a waste if too much has been prescribed. we can also be criticised if we give out meds too far in advance, without monitoring of the condition. but most of the time folks are seen e.g. yearly now for BP, and there are schemes in Scotland to have a yearly prescription, and the chemist is reimbursed in a different way to pay per item.

some meds are OK/stable etc e.g. some BP meds. some definitely are not e.g. Methotrexate. big range inbetween.

asking nicely should be the most likely to get a result. but if there's a tiff, you may get stuck with 28days, as per the prescribing guidance.

as usual no one thinks about the folk who fall outwith the boxes. Pharmacy for you, or similar sounded hopeful - but does not work in Scotland.

you can present a UK script anywhere in the UK, sometimes have to pay for it.

hth

 

[Scotsailor]

Get someone to pick up your prescription and send it on to you post restante?

My experience is that the Poste Restante service no longer exists as it used to. .… I have experienced problems with a Postmaster claiming there is no such service. .… it does seem that Post Offices don’t get paid for providing this service. And consequently many won’t provide it.