Stupid rules 101

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Member for

17 years 5 months

Posts: 8,980

Ok today went like this.......

Hi, I need to renew my prescriptions,

Are you on the repeat register?

I should be.

Ok what's your name?

TonyT

Yes you are, if you come in we will give you a white card then you just need to tick what you need and your prescription can be collected in two days.

Cool, I'll pop in, BTW I see on your website I can request a new prescription online, how do I set that up?

You need to pop in with a photo ID and we will set it up

But I don't have one, so can you not just set it up?

No, we need a photo ID

But I will be standing in front of you

Yes, but we need a photo ID

But I will be standing in front of you

Yes, but we still need a photo ID

Yes, but I WILL be standing in front of you, so you can see I am me AND you will be issuing the drugs then and there based on who I am standing in front of you, so what's the difference?

We need a photo ID for online.

At which point I gave up.

Original post

Member for

18 years 7 months

Posts: 1,376

Saw a big notice in my surgery last week boasting that you can now book appointments up to 8 weeks in advance. Oh, if only people would be sensible enough to plan their illnesses 2 months beforehand, instead of falling ill whenever they feel like it, and then expecting to see a doctor that same week.

Member for

14 years 1 month

Posts: 104

Ah yes it's a bit like our IT support at work, one of those you can only log when you are online which is problem if your network is broke.
I couldn't do my online prescription ordering until I showed a mugshot either.

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

Just nearly run out of eye drops, following Cataract Op, so I phoned the Surgery up, and asked if the Dr could prescribe some more. I stated I may have just enough for one more day.

"You will have to bring the bottle and box to the Surgery"
Why, I can read you what the medication is, and tell you the dosage etc.

"No, we need to see the box and bottle".

Then had to walk to Drs Surgery, as I have been told not to drive just yet.Showed the person to who I had spoken to the box and bottle.
"O.K. I will get the Dr to write you a prescription out and you can get them from Boots Chemist this afternoon"

Phoned Boots up 4 hrs later only to be told, "Sorry, but we don't have any of those in stock, can you go to the Hospital where you had the Op done, and ask them if they can issue you with some?.

But that's a 20 mile round trip, and I am not allowed to drive.

"Oh, I don't know what to suggest then.

I give up....................

Jim
Lincoln .7

Member for

12 years 8 months

Posts: 851

Saw a big notice in my surgery last week boasting that you can now book appointments up to 8 weeks in advance. Oh, if only people would be sensible enough to plan their illnesses 2 months beforehand, instead of falling ill whenever they feel like it, and then expecting to see a doctor that same week.

I think you may be missing the point of the notice. If you need regular checks or followups, some systems in GP's surgeries make it very difficult to book ahead, and I can assure you this causes considerable frustration for those people who need such slots. Your surgery is 'boasting' that you can make a followup appointment to suit you and the GP. Many would be envious of your ability to do so. Including me.

Member for

12 years 8 months

Posts: 851

not on quite the same scale as the OP, I had a frustrating conversation with a vendor recently.
I intended to purchase an item at £11. I started to put my debit card into in the requisite slot on the machine.
The vendor said, 'is your card contactless?'
I said 'yes, but I don't wish to use it as a contactless card I'll pay normally, thanks'
She said ' but it's contactless, it is easier to use'
I said, 'but I don't wish to use it as a contactless card, I have never used it as contactless and have no intention of doing so. Can I use it chip and pin?'
She said 'yes, but your card is contactless, it is easier for me if you use it contactless as it takes less time'
I said, 'but I can use chip and pin?, I would prefer to use Chip and Pin'
She said 'yes you can, but it is a contactless card'

I took my card out of the machine and gave her a £20 note.

Total transaction time, approx. 5.6 x the time it would have taken to put in the machine, her to press the appropriate spot on the till screen and me to type in my pin. A lose, lose situation for one and all. I know I was being stubborn, but if there is an option, why can't I use it? ( grumpy old git alert)

I now have asked for a non-contactless card from my bank so I don't have to go through this again.

Member for

17 years 5 months

Posts: 8,980

I must admit one has considered making up my own Joe 90 special agent, (remember him) Captain Scarlet, SHADO, Stingray or Thunderbirds ID card then adding my photo, laminating that and taking it along :p

If I needed pile cream a command position in the Klingon high command might have been apt for an ID.

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

Do you not have a passport or photo ID driving licence?

Member for

17 years 5 months

Posts: 8,980

No, old licence and having done the world no interest in doing it again, hence no passport. But what gets me it is wrong.

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

But that's a 20 mile round trip, and I am not allowed to drive...

I had a similar situation recently.

A friend fractured two vertebrae and was discharged from hospital with twenty-eight days supply of prescription medicine including some very strong pain-killers, or so he thought. After a couple of days of convalescing he discovered that instead of twenty-eight days of pain-killers he had only been given twenty-eight tablets, or about three days worth.

Thinking it a mistake, he asked me to drive him to the hospital only to be told that it was not a mistake and the number of tablets had only been issued because of their strong (and somewhat addictive nature) but the hospital could not issue more and he had to get a prescription from his GP! At no time was he advised that he had so few tablets (in a very large bag of tablets) or that he would need to get more from his GP (although being in so much pain and being somewhat sleep-deprived he may have missed it although he was certain he wasn't told when the tablets were issued).

I drove him to his GP but by the time we got there neither his GP, nor any other GP, was available. He was advised to ring the 'duty GP' (who didn't know him from Adam)! The result, within ten minutes, was that the dispensary issued him with one hundred pain-killer tablets!

Now, why couldn't the hospital just have issued them?

And, more to the point, why is it assumed that a patient suffering from a serious back injury (and unable to drive, even if they have a car) will cope with (wrongly) going to the hospital (15 miles in this case), then to their GP (another 10 miles), and then finally back home?

Without me driving him, he'd never have made it, and would have run out of pain-killers. By public transport it would have been virtually impossible and would have taken all day (not to mention the pain it would have caused). By taxi it would have been very expensive. So, the whole system, for a pensioner, somebody on low income or somebody with a (sick) small child or children?

It just seems the 'system' for issuing, or not issuing, more pain-killers was flawed; I mean, why not post them?

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

No, old licence and having done the world no interest in doing it again, hence no passport. But what gets me it is wrong.

It does seem strange that you, standing there, in person, wasn't sufficient ID for them?

Member for

17 years 10 months

Posts: 877

On a similar theme. I visit Guy's hospital every two to three months for check-ups and have been for the past six years.To do this i travel by car provided by the hospital from my house ,a trip of two hours each way. At this visit i have bloods taken.If something is amiss i am telephoned a few days later and asked to come in for a further blood test to check all is well.Which requires a trip of two hours there a blood test that takes ten minutes and then a two hour trip home.When i asked why can i not have the test done at my own hospital,ten minutes down the road ,and the results passed on,i am told no we don't talk to other hospitals you are our patient.I thought it was a National health service not an isolationist one.

Ooh that feels good to write my rant down.

Member for

13 years

Posts: 2,841

Our surgery has a paperless prescription service. The Doctor presses a button and the pharmacy next door gets it on their screen. Progress UNLESS they don't have the item then you are stuffed. I saw my Doctor on Tuesday as my foot had swollen up and it was agony to walk. It was diagnosed as athletes foot which had caused a bacterial infection. I was prescribed antibiotics(which I got) and a cream which they did not have.OK says the chemist we will get it for tomorrow morning and deliver it. Phone call to said chemist and they hope to have it by Friday from another branch(Newport) if the van driver turns up. I said give me the script and I will take it to another chemist. No that can't be done as it exists only on their screen. This is a cream for a common complaint its not as if I was asking for something obscure. So today I will talk to my Doctor on the phone(yes he will ring me back within an hour usually) and hopefully get him to sort it and get a paper script that I cn take to Boots.

Member for

11 years 5 months

Posts: 11,141

Reading these stories illustrate so clearly that the failings of the NHS are administrative and managerial, not clinical. Scandalous!

Trek - ridiculous. I would have reminded her that I was the customer and the payment method is not for her benefit.

Member for

17 years 2 months

Posts: 80

More stupid rules. For my sins I'm a bank manager and for a new customer we can accept a bank statement as proof of address. Unless of course that is the bank statement is issued by the bank I work for in which case it can't be used.
Or a foreign student can open an account with a passport and a letter from their university but a uk student has to provide passport and full address proof which for the average 18yr old is pretty much impossible

Member for

14 years

Posts: 4,996

Photo ID can be a problem. All I have is a bus pass.
My wife has no Photo ID at all. (she wont get a bus pass)

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

I think I opened my first bank account (Lloyds) with a grant-cheque and a student union card...

...those were the days! :)

I think I was lured away by another bank, who I am still with (decades later), with a £10 book token!

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

Thread drift here, but yesterday I had to attend the Hospital that did the Cataract Op on my Right eye, a couple of months ago or something like that. I had noticed that seeing out of that eye was a bit, well, less than I expected. I saw the Dr who performed the Op, had eye test etc, and was told that things were not how she expected it to be. Result, I now have to have corrective Laser treatment on the eye.
Has anyone had this done, and if so, what does it entail?.
Jim
Lincoln .7

Member for

13 years

Posts: 2,841

As far as I know its a piece of p1ss takes about 10 minutes. My late Mother in Law had it done,I had not had time to finish my coffee before the old bag was out.

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

Lol. Paul, I take it that you loved your Mother In Law to death...............:D
Jim
Lincoln .7

Member for

13 years

Posts: 2,841

Jim she walked out of the hospital and straight in the road in front of a bus. I pulled her back,to this day I wondered why I did that. She was the most poisonous two faced cow to me and her daughter that you would never wish to meet.

I hope that clarifies things Jim.