Today I'm feeling a bit:
Nationalized Healthcare is a BIG FUCKING JOKE
With a capital S for SCREWS YOU UP THE ASS!
You guessed it, I'm pretty damned angry at the moment.
Between an inept healthcare system, and an inept team of clowns posing as pharmacy staff, I'm out of my asthma meds.
My daily asthma meds, the ones I have to inhale twice a day, so I'm not sucking on my emergency inhaler like a BIG FRIGGIN' BLUE PLASTIC DILDO!
It should have been in the medicine the E.M. picked up for me yesterday, but it wasn't there. The only one I really needed RIGHT THEN, and it wasn't there.
So I'm been nursing the emergency inhaler since last night, because I've not had my daily inhaler, BECAUSE OF FUCKING NHS AND LLOYD'S PHARMACY IDIOTS WITH SO MUCH GODDAMNED PAPER TRAIL BETWEEN THEM, IT MAKES THE US CONGRESS LOOK PRETTY FUCKING GREEN AT THE MOMENT!
So I called the pharmacy. They didn't have my prescription. I had started to figure that they wouldn't, because otherwise, if they DIDN'T have the medicine, then we'd have received a little card saying it would be tomorrow (TODAY) that I could pick it up. That way, I'd have only missed one dose, which wouldn't be GOOD, but wouldn't be AS BAD AS MISSING TWO, WITH THE FUCKING REAL POSSIBILITY THAT I'M NOT GOING TO HAVE ANY TO TAKE UNTIL MONDAY!!
So, actually, it's not the pharmacy's fault --at THIS stage, but the story with THEM continues.
So back to the ship of golden fucking fools AKA England's National Health Service.
I called the doctor's office looking for the prescription. After being asked my name SEVERAL TIMES, with some being put on hold action mixed in there, to boot, the zombie on the other end of the phone line FINALLY figures out my name enough to look it up. Then I'm placed on hold again. They really should consider some hold muzak for the slow ass reaming they give while you wait on them to pick their asses and put two and two together about what's in front of them. She comes back, finally, after telling me she's going here and there all over the office, depending on which time she's put me on hold, and tells me, "Let me look in my prescription folder here. Oh, here it is, I have it here in front of me," she said, obviously extremely proud of herself that she'd solved the big bad problem in under ten minutes when the damned thing was sitting an elbow's length away.
"Well, it was supposed to be PICKED UP by the pharmacy on Wednesday, and in with my medications that my husband picked up for me yesterday. It was too late in the evening to call then, when I'd realized it wasn't there."
So the bitch tells me to call the pharmacy, and let them know they can pick it up. So as she bantered on about something, I cut her off, and said politely yet firmly, "Then I'd better call the pharmacy, then, so they can know to pick that up today; thank you, goodbye."
And now back to them. So I called the pharmacy, and told the voice on the other end that the prescription was still there "for some ungodly reason" and that they could pick it up today. "Will it be ready to be picked up today?" I asked her.
"Oh yes, if we pick it up from the pharmacy today, then it will be ready for you to pick up this afternoon after 3:30pm."
"Great. Now, could you please do me a favor and make sure you have the medicine IN STOCK for me, please? I need to take this TODAY, as I've already missed two doses, and I've had to use my emergency inhaler already. I MUST start taking this medicine again as soon as possible, and I CANNOT be without it over the weekend."
"Well I don't know if we have it in stock or not."
Obviously, my accent causes hearing impairment and idiocy in some people.
"Well could you check for me, please?" I"m not being pissy with anyone at the pharmacy, seeing as it's not been their fault, but I'm starting to really grit my teeth to keep control with this dumbass!
So I hear her ask the person next to her, "Do we have any --" then to me "What did you say it's called, again?"
"Asthamex"
"Ahh, okay." "Do we have any asthmanex?"
And I can hear the OTHER asswipe say rather dismissively, "Yes."
But the girl I'm speaking with actually asks again, and says "Well do we actually have it in?"
OH MY GOD!!! YES!!! SOME BRAIN ACTION!! I'm heartily impressed at THIS point.
"Yes." comes another flat and dismissive answer from the asswipe.
"Well no, we don't actually have any in," the asswipe comes back with.
/bitch slap!!
So the one I've been speaking with tells me, "It might be ready by 3:30, I've got to call our warehouse, to see if it's in."
"So you don't have it in?" I asked, wanting to know crystal clear what I had heard.
"No, but we SHOULD be able to get it, if it's in at the warehouse. I can call you back in ten minutes."
"Great! Thank you SO much! I look forward to hearing back from you!"
That was 25 minutes ago.
...
So, to sum it all up: Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment to renew my asthma prescriptions; they were supposed to be ready on Wednesday for the pharmacy to pick up. I did all of this TO ENSURE ON MY END that I had done what I needed to do, in order to NOT MISS ANY OF MY MEDICATIONS. The medicines picked up from the pharmacy did NOT include THE ONE MOST IMPORTANT MEDICINE ON THE PRESCRIPTION, because THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE HAD NOT HAD IT READY FOR THEM TO PICK UP. I'm not even going to ASK why the list from the pharmacy wasn't double checked, and why when my name wasn't accounted for in the pick up, no one asked the question of "why not?". So now the prescription has been found AT THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE, TWO DAYS AFTER IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE PICKED UP BY THE PHARMACY, and the pharmacy MAY OR MAY NOT BE ABLE TO GIVE ME THE MEDICINE I NEED TO KEEP MY ASS FROM HAVING AN ASTHMA ATTACK.
Lovely fuckin' jubbly.
Thanks, NHS, thanks, Lloyd's. I hope for Y'ALL'S sakes that I don't have an asthma attack between now and the time I'm actually able to get my meds.
And WHO THE FUCK knows when that will be, eh?!
So please, America, please, PLEASE DO NOT SWITCH TO NATIONALIZED HEALTHCARE!!! Go for manditory insurance, that's FINE! But please don't go this route. I must say, though, that nationalized healthcare WOULD insure everyone was seen by SOME sort of doctor, or nurse, or even midwife, BUT there's NO GUARANTEE of any sort of actual treatment or help.
I personally invite ALL of the presidential hopefuls to come over and actually TAKE PART in this system to see if this is what they REALLY want for the American people.
Because I hope not.
Here are just a few things I found about the NHS, after a quick google:
Criticisms over their breast cancer treatment programs.
Offices closed and staff cuts made because of financial problems in the NHS.
Forgive me for not adding more, but I think I'd better call the pharmacy back.
**EDIT** YEY, LLOYD'S!!! YEY ASSOCIATE I SPOKE WITH!! They've actually GOT some asthmanex for me!!! YEY!!! YEY!!!! YEY!!!!!!!!! After they pick up the presription from the Doctor's office --that's STILL a concern of mine, though, obviously, whether or not the Doctor's office is going to be ON THE BALL this time!!-- I'll be able to pick up my asthma meds. You know, I wouldn't be this cynical, or this quick to anger if I hadn't had ONE THING OR ANOTHER to happen EACH TIME I've had to pick up medications since I became part of this medical system. Each time I have to have a prescription refilled, I actually HOPE that I'm not going to have any problems, and I TRY to be positive, but that's EXTREMELY hard to do when you've gone from a problem here and there, off and on over several years, as opposed to a problem EVERY SINGLE TIME you need some meds over the course of ONE year. I'm truly thankful that my meds cost us no money here, but with that "no cost" has come ANOTHER cost each and every time. I don't know if that trade off is necessarily worth the hassle.
Well, whew, at least I can stop stressing now about whether or not the meds are at the pharmacy. I know this probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but if you have asthma --and I hope if you don't, that you NEVER DO!-- then it's a pretty scary prospect --for MY ASTHMA, at least-- to go without meds for any length of time.
Is there any way you could get the prescription overfilled so that you have
an extra dosage in reserve?
I don't think there's any way I could do that, here. I'd probably have to
get the same prescription in the US, and just get a bunch of it here, and
then take it back with me; that's what I'd done last year when I moved over
here. I don't know if my US Dr. would give me the meds now, though, since
I'm getting them over here. I wouldn't blame him, anyway, if he didn't
prescribe them to me. :( So I'm not sure. The only thing I know to do is
to try YET AGAIN to have it all done on my end as early as possible, so I
have a few days' dosage the next time it comes time to get it refilled. :(
Very interesting! But I think you are being a little unfair on the NHS. The
problem you've had getting your inhaler has been with two private
contractors, not with the NHS! GPs are self-employed, and have contracts
with the NHS to provide services, and the same is the case with
pharmacists.
I think to fully appreciate the NHS, you might want to break a
leg or get cancer. Then you will receive treatment IMMEDIATELY and at no
direct cost. Everyone is covered, and there is no possibility of treatment
being refused on personal economic grounds. From your position as a healthy
young person this may not seem particularly important, but imagine that you
were the mother of a handicapped or chronically ill child...
I know that the NHS is far from perfect, but I am very proud to live in a
country that puts the health of it's citizens right at the top of the
political agenda, and has under all administrations, ever since the end of
WW2.
I also suffer from asthma, and have twice been taken to casualty with
a life threatening attack, and treated immediately in whatever way the
receiving doctor saw fit. This would NOT have happened in a commercial
healthcare system, where my insurance status would have determined whether
I would have had treatment at all! And even if I had been fully insured,
would I have been treated as quickly, would I have even been at the "right"
hospital?
Perhaps the lesson of this experience is that you must expect
delays in getting service from your particular combination of GP and
Pharmacy. Well, you can either get your prescription sorted out sooner, or
try another GP!
I hope you don't need acute services from the NHS while you are here, but
if I were you, I'd feel happy to know it's there when you need it...
Cheers!
Tom
Tom, thanks for your very patient and kind comment, to my admittedly
offensive blog post. I was really upset that day, not that that should be
an excuse, and in as far as I understood how it was working --or rather NOT
working at the time-- those were the places to which I could narrow it
down, from my lack of knowledge. My husband explained to me that the
offices are basically contracted out to the doctors, so I do see now that
it was a specific thing, and not a blanket "NHS" error.
