Prescription refill annoyance

[old hat]

I like my current Gastroenterologist but she has one annoying habit. She doesn't set up prescriptions with any refills even if it is a medication I am going to be taking every day for the foreseeable future like Pentasa. Every time I get one refilled there is this whole rigamarole

1) I call the pharmacy and request a refill.
2) Since there are no refills on the prescription, they have to fax the doctor's office to request one.
3) Then they have to wait until the doctor's office responds and authorizes the refill before they can give me more.

I have been out of Pentasa for a bit over a week and I am almost out of 6-mp. I will be out before I can get back to the pharmacy. I requested refills on both about a week and a half ago now. If the prescriptions had refills on them, this song and dance would not be neccessary.

This isn't the first time this has happened and it is getting old.:ymad:

 

[D Bergy]

I guess i could understand this if you were using some drug that was highly addictive or some type of temporary prescription. It makes no sense to interrupt your treatment over such a dumb policy. Its not like anyone is going to use Pentasa as a recreational drug.

I would just ask them to give you a refillable prescription because this problem is not helping your treatment. If they do not want to do that then I would want a good reason why.

Good Luck

D Bergy

 

[Kev]

Hey OH... Ran into this twice before... 1st time, my GI was on maternity leave, and the GI who was covering (in the GI clinic) placed me on pred for 1st time...
since I wasn't his patient, and since pred has a bad rep., he didn't give me any refills.. I almost ran out trying to get it renewed, and running out of pred, going cold turkey, isn't a good thing... just typical hospital policy beuacratic bullshit!
Anyway, my 2nd experience was with my GI. She put me on imuran.. 30 pills w no refills... After my prev. exp. w pred., I insisted I be told why no refills on a prescription that at the time I was supposed to take for next 5 years +.

her reason? Welll, seems she HAD in the past supplied some patients with scripts with a lot of refills... then they'd stop making appointments & coming in for updates/visits... According to her, most of the IBD related meds come with too many issues, warnings, side effects, etc., for any doc to go giving out refills... so it has become common practice (advised best practices) for docs treating IBD cases to restrict or limit refills to next to nil. Since she has no reason to lie about it, and I've never experienced her being anything but totally straight forward and honest with me about my illness or treatment, I have no reason to doubt her... I guess it's partly that one can have IBD in various forms & phases, and opt not to seek regular GI visits, or whatever...
Like, frinstance.. IF I was still taking Imuran, and it had say 6 refills on it, I could keep taking it, perhaps stop getting my bloodwork done regularly, have some serious issues develop, and go on taking it w/o my GI having any say or control over whether I came into the office to see how I was doing, etc., etc

Not sure if this is the situation in your case with your GI.. I do know that in my neck of the woods, local docs of all stripes REFUSE to give renewals over the phone.. All patients MUST make an appointment and see the doctor prior to getting a renewal.. I believe that's the work of regulatory bodies trying to stem, stop or catch docs who over-prescribe or know patients who've become addicted... If there is an existing prescription, and renewals required before one can get in to see a doc, then my local pharmacy has contacted the doc, loaned me pills to cover me over until, and it has worked out a-ok.

I would speak to your doc... it could be that she/he has been burned before by patients who take their refill laden prescriptions and run.. or regulatory concerns,, or simply 'billing' visits to your health care service provider... In any event, you deserve an honest, total explanation of this practice of hers.

 

[soupdragon69]

I agree with Kev on this, your GI may have a good reason for holding back. Thing is the added stress to you in relation to temper and running round to get the refill and the extra time spent is difficult for anyone not in this position to understand. Does that make sense?

A few months ago my local health authority decided because I live outside the 1mile radius of my GP surgery I wasnt allowed to pick up my drugs there anymore as they dont have a pharmacist and are a dispensing surgery only. Their argument being there could be a "conflict of interest" with the GP's prescribing.

I had to fill in copious paperwork and wrote a letter and made phonecalls to the extent I ended up in tears only to be told NO and that I had to go elsewhere.

The problem for me is I have a huge drug order every month due to multiple health probs and knew a new chemist would have probs. The next nearest to the surgery had a reputation for getting things wrong and not ordering stuff in time and another one nearby told me I should be thankful for what I got when I took my elemental script there (he gave me 9 instead of 86 cartons and 12 instead of 40 sachets work that out and couldnt tell me when I would get the rest whereas my surgery always had my full quota of drinks a max of 2 days after I requested them). So stressed and ill wasnt the word for me!

I played them at their own game Old Hat and got myself to the stage where I had a 2-3 wks overlap with my drugs so I dont run out. If you can get your next script and then talk to your GI about things and get ahead with your drugs discussing any of the concerns Kev has mentioned they may have regarding attendance etc.

Sorry its a bit long winded. Just understand your frustration on this one!

Hope you are in better form and get things sorted soon.