A while ago I got a letter from my doctor saying I was due a visit to the asthma clinic for my routine check up (basically, I blow in a machine and assuming I don’t die I pass for another year). No probs, I rang up and got an appointment.
A couple of weeks after making the appointment mich pops into the pharmacy to collect my latest inhaler prescription. When the pharmacist comes out with it she tells mich that I need to make an appointment to see her as “the pharmacy is running the asthma clinics now”. Odd she replies and tells her that I’ve only just been asked to make one at the doctors. The pharmacist then goes on to claim that the doctors are the ones who have sent them the list of suitable patients. Very odd.
I ignore this and wait for my appointment (it was a 8 week wait due to various holidays and the fact I wanted a 5:30pm appointment). Well, appointment finally came around this thursday so I asked the doc about this pharmacy thing. Interestingly, she knew nothing of it and after making a few enquiries confirmed that they had sent no such list to the pharmacy. “They have targets as well now” was her response…
If this is true then I can only assume that the pharmacist is using the fact that I have a repeat prescription for asthma medication as a way of attempting to “pinch trade” from the doctors. Not sure I like this – not even sure it’s legal (feels like an abuse of information to me…). I think I’ll request my next prescription is sent to the chemist at the other end of the street.
Talking of pharmacists, I feel I ought to plug an online one I used a while back. I placed an order with chemist-4-u.com for some antihistimines (no, I’m not buying intermahweb Cialli$ or V1jAGR4). In Boots the ones I take are £4.49 for 7. On perscription I get 60 for 7 quid (or whatever the charge is now). From chemist-4-u.com I can get packs of 30 for 99p *including postage*. Now, if they can do them at that price surely boots could be a little cheaper…
Anyway, they seem to be the real thing – they work as well as any and before they would post them to me they insis on ringing or emailing you to ask the normal pharmacy questions (are these for you? Have you taken them before? What other medication are you taking etc etc). I was impressed…
Finally, while on a whinge about the NHS (don’t get me wrong, in general I think the NHS is wonderful) a few months ago I got a letter from my dentist which appeared to be word for word identical with the one mich got a while back. I ignored it and then got another one saying that my appointment with them had been cancelled. A few weeks ago my mum went along for her final appointment (they didn’t have time to cancel hers) and she asked them about this saying that she wasn’t signing up for either and that they both seemed a con. They then offered her the chance to go pay-as-you-go… Not quite such a good result as mich got (her dentist offered to keep her on NHS when it became obvious she wasn’t going to sign up) but still and improvement.
What really annoys me is that pay-as-you-go wasn’t an option in the letter. Bastards attempting to use scare tactics to get me to sign up to an insurance that is useless. I’ll give them a ring next month and see what they offer me – I’m buggered if I’m paying for the privilege of being allowed to visit.
Grrrrr
Heh I am with you there for most of that. Handily I can book my appointments with my GP online so don’t have to faff about which is great.
Being a dentist seems to be a licence to print money, mrspao went to the dentist for the first time in years around six months ago (due to a cracked tooth) are there any NHS dentists around here? Nope. So a small fortune has been spent getting the treatment done to get her mouth in full working order (don’t say a word), yesterday she went for a checkup – six minutes and 40quid later her mouth is pronounced to be as it should be. Thats 400quid an hour! Is it too late to retrain?