Some good news some great news and ‘wonderful ‘ news

First up you may remember I was contacted by researchers at Imperial College regarding Pharmacy First. They’d asked me about my experiences with this little known service. In short it needs publicity and needs to be unshackled from bizarre restrictions. Pharmacists as professionals qualified clinicians and they are owed respect and power to prescribe properly.

As requested I circulated their template to drive up recruitment. 24 hours later they asked to send another! Due to unprecedented responses ( 100+) they’d had to pause recruitment. They didn’t have the staffing to cope. Who knew I knew 100 people?

Sort of related is about our much appreciated chemist/ pharmacy and yes they are in Pharmacy First. They seem to know everyone. They advise, sort VAT exemptions and translate for those for whom English is not first language. Front of house are two extraordinary people. They find everything advise check double check and … they smile and chatter. Turns out head office tried to get rid of them. Such is the community support 160 people including me , emailed head office. I had to pop in there today .. I’ll explain why… it seems head office has temporarily reinstated them. Not without issuing wild accusations of bringing the company into disrepute.

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I’ve now had a confidential letter spelling the whole thing out. I’d tell you what it said, but then I’d have to kill you…

The short version is that Z appears to have won at least a temporary reprieve.

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Don’t mess with us # Patient Power wins that round at least. Surely Pharmacy First needs staff with knowledge empathy and smart leadership skills?

Then we come to my own bit of the week.

I tried to get gentamicin before the weekend.

Turns out there’s a national shortage. No way can this be true. But again awesome staff at the very same place wrote:

I heard back from our wholesalers earlier today, to tell us that the Gentamicin ampoules that we ordered for you are out of stock, with no resupply date being available.

This seems to be an issue with one of the ingredients as I then spent a large proportion of this afternoon chasing  various places but sadly without success. All brands and pack sizes have been affected.

So now what? Dunno. I’ve emailed UCLH. No reply. And I have none left.

Last weekend was busy for a very special reason. Before I end with that – long story short I got some kind of virus. No voice. Cough. Splutter blah. Asthma kicking in. Used up my ready made home stocks. Sped back home on Monday night to the trauma of having to sit with our dog Fred as he was gently euthanised. As daughter 1 said as we lay on the cool vet floor. This is kinder than how my parents died. It’s still awful. But calmer kinder and personal.

By Tuesday of course asthma not happy. Lo and behold econsult to GP miraculously produced nurse appointment. Steroids. Pick up immediately from … you guessed it my favourite pharmacy. Z was there “so grateful for all the public support”. Z recommended some rescue remedy gummies. Apparently good for stress. Said it’s the only way the last week could be got through. They were nearly sold out of them as each patient overheard the whole story of the campaign. ( not the confidential bits – well not all of them anyway!). What a brilliant outcome all round. Bet ‘ head office’ can see the money rolling in today on Rescue Remedy Gummies alone!

Finally and not least. Why did I need to be fit and well last weekend. The wedding of Daughter 2 who used to work in NHS. In an exchange of emails today, not with her. She’d agree that :

Cutting the waiting list from the bottom, not the top — that’s the new trick. Just discharge the longest waiters back to the GP on a technicality. And because everything now goes through “advice and guidance”, the GP can’t even re‑refer. Magically, the list shrinks. Patients don’t get care. But the spreadsheet looks fabulous. Goodbye Wes. That’s Wes’ dismal

legacy .

As though he rewrote House of God for modern healthcare “management”:
Make everything so labyrinthine that both patients and clinicians lose the will to live. Drown everyone in paperwork. Call it progress.

Our emails continued. ….I’ll try and summarise:

new laws designed to make research faster and easier. So, it’s now slower and harder

The highlight: a Serious Adverse Event form for something that wasn’t serious, then completing another form to redact the first form because the system agreed it wasn’t serious. Peak bureaucracy.

If we have unanticipated deficiency causing a serious unexpected serious adverse reaction that also counts as a serious adverse event we might classify it wrong — which will itself be a serious event. Followed by our own adverse reaction. Hopefully not a serious one.

But now back to Daughter 2. She lights up the room — thriving in her new rôle, flourishing in a new workplace (a real loss to the NHS), and now stepping into her newest rôle as Mrs R. We had the most amazing weekend, wrapped in the team of fantastic friends and family. That’s the bit that matters. Her brothers’ tributes, her sister (Daughter 1!) as maid of honour, and five small grandchildren sprinkled in joyful confetti.