Doctors and pharmacies

[Robinjopo1]

Here's what I dont understand. (Yes, one of many).

The doctor gives a person who is in chronic pain medicine for 30 days. When you go to fill the next month's prescription , they make you wait until day 31 which means the person in chronic pain has to wake up (5 a.m.) with no meds and wait till the pharmacy opens, wait for them to fill it then drive back home.

Anyone with pain knows that early mornings are the worst for pain. Why they hell can't you get it on day 30 so you can wake up and get relief without waiting 4 to 5 hours?

In case the FDA or CDC are prying......Asking for a friend.

 

[Brent S]

Here's what I dont understand. (Yes, one of many).

The doctor gives a person who is in chronic pain medicine for 30 days. When you go to fill the next month's prescription , they make you wait until day 31 which means the person in chronic pain has to wake up (5 a.m.) with no meds and wait till the pharmacy opens, wait for them to fill it then drive back home.

Anyone with pain knows that early mornings are the worst for pain. Why they hell can't you get it on day 30 so you can wake up and get relief without waiting 4 to 5 hours?

In case the FDA or CDC are prying......Asking for a friend.

With my wife in chronic pain I understand your frustration! There are so many stupid rules and regulations it’s discusting.

 

[TexasFreedom]

Robin, a bird told me that you can find some medications from families of those who've recently passed. Often the family has a case of drugs and often just toss them or donate them. They can't legally sell them. And of course these medicines can be abused. But if you can explain your situation, maybe via a pastor/intermediary? Just a month's spare supply will last years of 31-day months.

Or someone else I know told his doc that they were planning a big trip, and the doc did a one-time 3-month supply. Of course his trip 'was cancelled', and he was able to resume the monthly supplies with some spares. And as you said, speaking for/of friends...

 

[bigpaul]

at the moment we have to order monthly repeat medicine on a postal basis, I take the repeat requests to the doctors surgery 9 miles away across country, with a stamped addressed envelope, they then get a doctor to sign the prescription and post it back to us, this can take 3 or 4 days, I then have to take that to a pharmacy 9 miles away, I do this every 28 days.
this is one of the joys of living in the country, replacement doctor said it was our fault for "living on the edge of everything and in the middle of nowhere". silly ###.

 

[DrPrepper]

We have a lot of cancer patients at my job. They have pain and we give prescriptions for pain meds. Sometimes we will give them a day or two early if they have a good reason. They will take it to the pharmacy and they will refuse to fill it early even if the patient will pay out of pocket.
I have gotten on the phone and persuaded a few pharmacist to do it a day or two early. There are many that flat out refuse to do it. There are tight regulations coming from the DEA.
They are starting to crack down on doctors writing the prescriptions. It’s not too bad for us because all of our patients are terminally ill, for chronic pain patients I imagine it’s much worse.
One of my doctors has some patients ( just a handful) that followed him from his old family practice ( he was a family practice doctor before he was working with terminally ill patients).
Some of them are on chronic pain medications. All of the DEA regulations have the doctors contemplating on scaling back their meds and they are much stricter on those patients when writing their prescriptions.

 

[bigpaul]

I have seen patients who get their meds direct from the doctors surgery, they are known here as "dispensing" surgeries, they have to leave their repeat requests at the surgery and they cant pick up their meds until 7 days later! the surgeries don't keep the meds on hand and have to order them in, presumably this is how long it takes to get it from the drug suppliers.

 

[DrPrepper]

I have seen patients who get their meds direct from the doctors surgery, they are known here as "dispensing" surgeries, they have to leave their repeat requests at the surgery and they cant pick up their meds until 7 days later! the surgeries don't keep the meds on hand and have to order them in, presumably this is how long it takes to get it from the drug suppliers.

I guess they are making it difficult for everyone everywhere.

 

[bigpaul]

well the main problem is getting GP's/family doctors to come and work in a rural practice. most want to work in the big cities after they qualify.
the other problem is they are closing/have closed all the local cottage hospitals that used to take the pressure off the big hospitals, the nearest hospital for even out patients/day surgery is now 25-30 miles away, (and its further for some people, that's just the distance from us) that probably dosent sound far to Americans but its at least a 1 hour car drive in this country.

 

[Robinjopo1]

well the main problem is getting GP's/family doctors to come and work in a rural practice. most want to work in the big cities after they qualify.
the other problem is they are closing/have closed all the local cottage hospitals that used to take the pressure off the big hospitals, the nearest hospital for even out patients/day surgery is now 25-30 miles away, (and its further for some people, that's just the distance from us) that probably dosent sound far to Americans but its at least a 1 hour car drive in this country.

I understand Paul. I use a pharmacy 25 miles away so I have a 50 mile round trip.

In the states, any schedule 2 and up prescription have to be picked up by hand at doctor. They can't do the electronic transfer to pharmacy either. It has to be on paper.

 

[DrPrepper]

well the main problem is getting GP's/family doctors to come and work in a rural practice. most want to work in the big cities after they qualify.
the other problem is they are closing/have closed all the local cottage hospitals that used to take the pressure off the big hospitals, the nearest hospital for even out patients/day surgery is now 25-30 miles away, (and its further for some people, that's just the distance from us) that probably dosent sound far to Americans but its at least a 1 hour car drive in this country.

I drive 45 minutes to and from work each day.
At least I am here for 8 -9 hours per day. If I drove all this way for a piece of paper, that would be frustrating.

 

[bigpaul]

its 1 hour to the hospital, the doctors is about 20 minutes through narrow country lanes.
I cant remember the last time I went to hospital, about 5 years ago I think and that was to collect someone.

 

[Arcticdude]

I'm over 80 miles one way to the nearest hospital. In winter that can be a 3 hour drive. That's my choice to live that far away and I accept the "hardships" that go along with where I live. What few meds that the wife and I take are mailed to us on an auto refill schedule. When the prescriptions run out, or get close to running out, the pharmacist just calls our doctor and she renews it.
None of our prescriptions are for pain meds so that may be a different matter.

 

[bigpaul]

we each get a couple of repeat items every 28 days, none of them are for anything life threatening, pain meds we get over the counter, I doubt I take 6 tablets in a year.

 

[brandx]

Robin, a bird told me that you can find some medications from families of those who've recently passed. Often the family has a case of drugs and often just toss them or donate them. They can't legally sell them. And of course these medicines can be abused. But if you can explain your situation, maybe via a pastor/intermediary? Just a month's spare supply will last years of 31-day months.

Or someone else I know told his doc that they were planning a big trip, and the doc did a one-time 3-month supply. Of course his trip 'was cancelled', and he was able to resume the monthly supplies with some spares. And as you said, speaking for/of friends...

Um..... giving someone prescription medications that don't belong to them is called "distributing drugs without a license". Just thought I'd mention it. On the other hand I understand 100% wanting to help someone.

 

[brandx]

I understand Paul. I use a pharmacy 25 miles away so I have a 50 mile round trip.

In the states, any schedule 2 and up prescription have to be picked up by hand at doctor. They can't do the electronic transfer to pharmacy either. It has to be on paper.

Yep.

 

[brandx]

There is a thing called Critical Access Hospitals. I believe for rural areas, can only have 25 beds so I hear. Every rural area should have one but depending on how big your county is, I guess could be a drive.

 

[bigpaul]

I understand Paul. I use a pharmacy 25 miles away so I have a 50 mile round trip.

In the states, any schedule 2 and up prescription have to be picked up by hand at doctor. They can't do the electronic transfer to pharmacy either. It has to be on paper.

I don't know what schedule 2 is, but non of our monthly medicine is life saving or urgent, we could perhaps manage without it or ration what we have in an emergency. if I lost a bit of weight post SHTF that would cut out my most ordered med.

 

[bigpaul]

There is a thing called Critical Access Hospitals. I believe for rural areas, can only have 25 beds so I hear. Every rural area should have one but depending on how big your county is, I guess could be a drive.

we don't really have any rural hospitals in my county any more, that would be the "cottage" hospitals they closed down, now we have to travel to the larger hospitals that have day clinics and emergency rooms in larger urban centres, in our case that would be 25-30 miles away, for other people it would be further. even maternity clinics have been closed so many babies will be born in the back of ambulances in parking areas.
thankfully we don't need hospital treatment and haven't for at least 5 years.

 

[TexasFreedom]

Um..... giving someone prescription medications that don't belong to them is called "distributing drugs without a license". Just thought I'd mention it. On the other hand I understand 100% wanting to help someone.

That is a valid point. My view is that if a loved family member went 2-3 days every month in tremendous pain just because of paperwork, I'd find a plan B. I'm not saying you have to steal every month. But if somehow I could get 5 pills to bridge that window every month, I'd do what it takes without harming others. If that means buying drugs from a family that lost grandpa, so be it. I'm not sure I'd go buy the drug from a street dealer.

Note that I'm not saying to get XX pills every month, but these pills would bridge this month and get replaced with paperwork/new pills. Those new XX pills carry over next month. And so on. Again, it's a consideration and varies by person and situation.

And if I were to be in this situation and got arrested for it, so be it. I'll go before a jury of my peers, make my case, and let's see how many of them vote guilty? It only takes one, and a district attorney knows it. He has bigger fish to fry. Slap my hand with a little plea deal probation & move on. Now if I was trying to buy 100's or 1000's of pills, lock me up! I'm talking about a few pills to get through bureaucracy delays.

 

[KateMTx]

This is the problem with legislating on these issues. I know that prescription drug abuse and addiction are epidemic problems, but addictions begin with a choice. These people who are in pain do not have a choice. They need these medications and are unable to get them because of laws made due to the actions of others. There should never be a time when the only way to treat a serious medical condition is to break the law (assuming, of course, that the treatment does not somehow directly harm another human being).