# GP rant



## Rosiecarmel (Feb 4, 2016)

I'm irritated with my doctors and the pharmacist next door (they're in the same health centre). I get my medications in a dosette box as when I become poorly, I often forget to take medications or get confused as I'm on two psychiatric medications and three diabetic medications. NOW I take 4 in a morning and two with tea so around 5/6pm. I also occasionally get a sleeping tablet prescribed which obviously is at night time. Missing doses of any of my medications can have pretty bad consequences. I rang the chemist yesterday to double check my repeat prescription was in and she informed me that my medication was no longer in a dosette box and I'd have to ring the GP. So after the receptionist refused to put me through to my GP, she rang me back to say a doctor (not MY doctor) had decided that since I've been mentally well and stable for a long time that a dosette box is no longer necessary.

Whilst it is true that I have been very well (mainly since starting nursing at university as I've finally found my passion!) i feel it's very irresponsible for a doctor that doesn't even know me to decide that I can handle my medications myself. From my, limited, 18months experience, I can't think of any reason why a doctor would stop a dosette box that's been in place for at least 3 years. It might be a little more work for the pharmacist but surely it's hardly expensive!!

So tomorrow I have the joys of picking up 4 boxes of metformin, two boxes of gliclazide, one box of canagliflozin, two boxes of sodium valproate, one box of sertraline and a box of test strips! Weekly dosette box deliveries through my letter box was SO MUCH EASIER


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## Ralph-YK (Feb 4, 2016)

I've the same issue of remembering.  I'm on different meds. However, a similar number of tables with the same regime.  I've been getting my boxes.  I've been told, what is called a callendar box (the days of the week printed over the tables) are disappearing.  This helped in knowing if that days tablet had been taken.  It still takes some care and attention.


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## KookyCat (Feb 5, 2016)

That's sounds pretty poor to me Rosie, to make those changes without even consulting you is inappropriate really.  I mean how do they know it's appropriate?  i know these sorts of arrangements are made for vulnerable patients and they may have decided you no longer fit that category but consultation should be the first item on their tick box surely 

When you become a fully trained nurse Rosie, you need to show them how it should be done!


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## Stitch147 (Feb 5, 2016)

Thats really bad, they should have discussed your requirements with you before just changing it. I sit there on a sunday evening putting my pills into my weekly pill box, AM and PM, it does take a while but at least I can keep track of my daily 8 tablets that way.


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## pottersusan (Feb 5, 2016)

Thank god for pill organisers! Perhaps we could organise a Sunday evening pill organiser club, with Stitch and me being founder members

I know that pharmacies can only handle a limited number of dosette boxes 'cos of the time they take, but stopping yours without consultation is not on.


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## Stitch147 (Feb 5, 2016)

pottersusan said:


> Thank god for pill organisers! Perhaps we could organise a Sunday evening pill organiser club, with Stitch and me being founder members



My OH thinks its funny and says that its a sign of getting old, I'm 39!!! But at the mo its 4 white ones in the morning, 2 white ones, 1 yellow one and one green one in the evening! I even keep spare tablets in my desk at work, just in case I forget to put my pill organiser in my work bag.


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## Copepod (Feb 5, 2016)

Can you take it as a vote of confidence in your health and abilities that you no longer need weekly deliveries of dosette boxes, Rosiecarmel? Surely you are dispensing drugs to patients at work?
Also, it would be interesting to know the costs of providing and delivering weekly dosette boxes.
However, I agree that it would have been better for the GP to discuss the change with you. I hope that the arrangement could be reinstated if you needed.


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## Ralph-YK (Feb 5, 2016)

39!?!  I'm old , I'm 52.


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## Stitch147 (Feb 5, 2016)

Ralph-YK said:


> 39!?!  I'm old , I'm 52.


Thats not old!


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## Amigo (Feb 5, 2016)

Rosie, I know you're going to hate me for saying this but I feel compelled to say it. Isn't it a reasonable expectation that as you're training to be a professional nurse with responsibility for administering patient medications that you're able to manage your own?
Please don't think I'm being unkind but perhaps your doctor thinks you've moved on considerably and in the future you'll be expected to take responsibility for the drugs trolley which requires quite clear thinking.

Sorry hun, I don't mean to be unsympathetic but these dosette arrangements tend to be for very elderly people or those with compromised capacity to manage and you always strike me as a really capable young woman. 

And I expect an onslaught for saying that.


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## Ralph-YK (Feb 5, 2016)

Keeping the patient informed is crucial. The patient knowing what is going on matters for managing the condition and patient moral.  I keep hearing how important communication is in any situation.
It's not just the changing of the prescription, it's the not bothering to talk to the patient.

Edit: Your post went up as I was typing mine Amigo, so it wasn't actually a reply to yours.
How long would it be before someone was given the drugs trolley?  Is it a specific post, with responsibilities, on shift.


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## Northerner (Feb 5, 2016)

@Amigo, I think the problem is that the decision has been made by a doctor who is not Rosie's usual doctor, so the decision has been made based on zero knowledge of her current circumstances


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## Amigo (Feb 5, 2016)

Northerner said:


> @Amigo, I think the problem is that the decision has been made by a doctor who is not Rosie's usual doctor, so the decision has been made based on zero knowledge of her current circumstances



I absolute agree that there's been a total lack of communication on this northerner and that's bad practice. I don't want to elaborate however as I'd hate to be seen to be critical of Rosie as that wasn't my intent.


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## Rosiecarmel (Feb 5, 2016)

I do feel entirely confident in my abilities to manage my own medications now and to be honest, I probably will buy a pill organiser and do it myself just so they're all in one place. I'm in a very good place right now and fingers crossed this will continue for the foreseeable future. 

If it was my regular GP that had said it, or even discussed it with me, I would have agreed. I saw my regular GP recently and there was no mention of how I receive my tablets. I mainly feel that it is not the decision of a doctor that probably couldn't even pick me out of a crowd to make decisions on my behalf without consulting me or my GP. The pharmacists weren't even consulted - they were just told to stop dispensing them in a dosette box and that was that. 

As I posted that late last night, I was still frustrated by this. I suppose I also felt a little anxious as it was so unexpected. I do a lot of reflecting on nearly every situation (personal and professional) and I've decided that as Copepod and Amigo have said, I'm going to take this as a vote of confidence in myself. I can handle drug rounds on wards with 15+ patients no problem but I have relied on a dosette box for myself for three years now. I'm mainly surprised by the lack of communication between the doctors, pharmacists and myself.


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## trophywench (Feb 5, 2016)

Pete's mother was on shedloads of things - she was on Warfarin as her starter for 10, then Metformin for her T2, but that didn't develop until after she was diagnosed with cancer of the womb, and whilst operating for that they had discovered she actually had bowel cancer which by that time was terminal - so there were 3 or 4 things for that - she had a weekly pill organiser which Pete's bro/SiL used to fill for her every week - but she did it herself till she was nearly 80.  It was Perspex, 7 columns (days of the week) and 5 or 6 rows deep.

Treat yourself to 4 and do a whole packet at a time!  Won't take up half as much room as all those flippin boxes.


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## AlisonM (Feb 5, 2016)

I have memory issues too and the only way I can remember doses of my meds is by having alarms set on my phone, take this many of that pill, test your BGs now and do this much of that jab. Otherwise, I will certainly forget. I learned early on that pill boxes don't work for me without having the reminders as well.

I think, perhaps you should make an appointment with your regular GP and discuss it with them, the new one had no right to arbitrarily change things out of the blue without at least talking to you first.


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## Amigo (Feb 5, 2016)

Rosiecarmel said:


> I do feel entirely confident in my abilities to manage my own medications now and to be honest, I probably will buy a pill organiser and do it myself just so they're all in one place. I'm in a very good place right now and fingers crossed this will continue for the foreseeable future.
> 
> If it was my regular GP that had said it, or even discussed it with me, I would have agreed. I saw my regular GP recently and there was no mention of how I receive my tablets. I mainly feel that it is not the decision of a doctor that probably couldn't even pick me out of a crowd to make decisions on my behalf without consulting me or my GP. The pharmacists weren't even consulted - they were just told to stop dispensing them in a dosette box and that was that.
> 
> As I posted that late last night, I was still frustrated by this. I suppose I also felt a little anxious as it was so unexpected. I do a lot of reflecting on nearly every situation (personal and professional) and I've decided that as Copepod and Amigo have said, I'm going to take this as a vote of confidence in myself. I can handle drug rounds on wards with 15+ patients no problem but I have relied on a dosette box for myself for three years now. I'm mainly surprised by the lack of communication between the doctors, pharmacists and myself.




Well done for reflecting on this and having greater confidence in yourself Rosie.


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## Rosiecarmel (Feb 5, 2016)

trophywench said:


> Treat yourself to 4 and do a whole packet at a time!  Won't take up half as much room as all those flippin boxes.



That's a very good point! They do take up a load of room in my bathroom! 



Amigo said:


> Well done for reflecting on this and having greater confidence in yourself Rosie.



Thank you. I always try to find positives from negative situations however I must admit sometimes my anxiety takes over!


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## Northerner (Feb 5, 2016)

Amigo said:


> Well done for reflecting on this and having greater confidence in yourself Rosie.


Yes, good for you Rosie!  I do wonder if, as with the blanket reduction in strips mentioned elsewhere, such actions are down to the fact that GPs are snowed under with bureaucracy nowadays, and unable to take the steps they would possibly prefer to, given time and resources?


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## AJLang (Feb 5, 2016)

I completely rely on OH to fill my dosing boxes because I sometimes forget....but they are different medications at 5 different times of the day plus eye drops plus a liquid medicine that I have to get from the fridge. Rosiecarmel are you able to buy some dosing containers and fill them at the beginning of each week? I agree though that it was wrong of the GP not to consult you.


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## anniehi (Feb 5, 2016)

Hi Rosie,

It was a bit mean not discussing the matter with you first but you are thinking more positively now.  The chemists in my area deliver medications, would it help a bit to get them delivered to your home?

I had trouble finding a calendar tablet box big enough for all my medications!  I eventually found one at Boots but days of the week printed on the top of each compartment peeled off every time I opened it.  I couldn't find anything else suitable so I changed it for another and stuck sellotape over the top of the printing.


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## robert@fm (Feb 6, 2016)

I am in the reverse situation; I am quite capable of doing my own meds (I did them for over 15 years, I still do my own insulin), but because I'm on a care plan I'm not allowed to; it's my carers' responsibility (complete with paperwork they have to fill out), and since the care sessions are only 30 minutes total, my pills thus have to be in a dosette box. (Same with my evening meals; they have to be something the carer can just whip straight from the fridge to the microwave, so I basically live off ready meals.)

One thing that annoyed me about pill sorters is that all the ones I've ever seen are arranged as the traditional week (Sunday to Saturday), but I for one prefer to use the modern week as defined by ISO-8601 (Monday to Sunday), not least because nearly all calendar-pack pills are packed that way.  Fortunately, Boots did at least two pill sorters which can be split into individual sections (presumably for taking pills when out and about), and it's a moment's work to detach the Sunday compartment from the left and reattach it on the right.


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## pav (Feb 7, 2016)

Had the dosette boxes with my mother and they were a great help for me and the carers, could see at a glance if a dose was missed. I transfer my pills into bottles due to having so many meds and they are organised in two rows with the meds to take in the morning and night. Where pills are night and morning they are kept at one end of the chain of meds. For me it makes it so much easier to handle them and even though I know which meds are which a dossette box would make things a lot easier, as my meds change quite often it would not be practicable to have one even if the docs agreed to let me use them.

Agree the with the others that the doctor should of discussed it with you and decide together what was bet for you, its getting far to much these days on what is the cheapest option and not what is best for the person involved.


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## eggyg (Feb 8, 2016)

Was interested to read this thread. I take a lot of medication and usually I am fine with remembering when and what to take. As I get older (nearly 56!) I do sometimes forget but luckily my hubby is great at reminding me which is fine when we're together but we both work so aren't joined at the hip! My solution is to have my medication close to where I am likely to be when I need to take it ie, bedside cabinet for the 3 tablets I take first thing in morning and last thing at night. Dresser drawer close to kitchen table where we usually eat and have a pill box in my handbag for when I'm at work. There doesn't appear to be a big enough pill box for all my medication! 25 tablets, at the very least, a day plus 2 shots of insulin! I When we are on holiday I use the little plastic pots my blood testing strips come in to pop in the different tablets then dispense them into my pretty pill box when going to restaurants.


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