General Chat

SuffolkVera, I have emailed my local councillor twice about the bus service which is not "disabled" friendly at all as there are 3 steeps steps to climb up and it is a small 22 seater minibus but to date no reply!! These people promise the earth when they canvass and when they get elected do very little grrr.

i dont think for one moment the council here would send a taxi to take me to town, pick up prescription and take me home for free as that would be an 80 mile trip to the taxi driver and the bill to the council would be around£140 during the week or £160 on a Saturday!!

Florence in the hebrides

Joan mentioning taxi tokens reminded me that our local authority will give taxi tokens to anyone eligible for a bus pass who can't use public transport. I don't know what the situation is re. bus passes in your area but perhaps it's worth seeing if your local authority can help.

A round trip to town is over 40 miles, no chemists in town deliver outwith the town area. There are no taxi firms outwith the town either.
My daughter has her own meds sent to a town chemist. She then spends several hours on a bus as they only run every 2 hours but she is not always here as spends a week or more elsewhere so im left on my own for a good chunk of the month.

Linda these companies only offer the service to mainland unless you live in a town on a island and even then not sure they would offer as totally reliant on a ferry bringing supplies.

My phone has just rung as I was typing this. It was the charity who said they are rethinking of a way to serve people in my position so has added my name to a list as it would appear i'm not the only one. At present they deliver 3 days a week but they said they are discussing deliveries for 1 day a week but whatever the outcome, they wont leave me stuck.

My faith in human kindness has been restored <3 The lady was so lovely and understanding unlike my GP practice :-P

Feeling rather emotional so off to make a coffee.

Florence in the hebrides

I recommend Lloyds pharmacy

I was how do I get mine when covid struck and I was housebound after the knee surgery

My granddaughter told me about several online pharmacy did them but it depends who your doctors surgery have signed up with

So I signed up and been very satisfied with their service
They email you to say when you are running low and you reorder through them

About a week later your meds are delivered by PO tracking parcel free of delivery

Is your daughter not able to collect them for you, Florence?

I can’t believe you are the only one in that position. If I remember your taxi fares are huge.

Is there another pharmacy that will deliver.

Some pharmaces are in deep trouble. Round here there are some ( the Welsh sounding one) are in special measures. Ours is hopeless and public transport is not great.

Caroline’s ideas are great - but life is not like that here. Maybe Florence should write to the local medical group.

If you really are the only one as they say then can't they send your meds to you in a taxi, and maybe provide more each time to reduce the number of trips?
I'm sure the practice is rich enough to cover one taxi once in a while.
Would there be a hospital volunteer driver near the practice willing to drive them to you?
Excuse my ignorance but what is the policing situation for your area is there any way the local officer could deliver them?

Another worry you could do without. Would your surgery send the prescription electronically to a chemist and would they then deliver it for you? That's what happens round here. I am mobile so do collect my meds but otherwise I never see my prescription. It's all dealt with between the doctor and the chemist. Do you by any chance have a branch of Boots or Lloyds in town? They will deliver although I think there is now a charge but the surgery would need to send the script to the chemist.

Good luck sorting it out.

There are national delivery companies who deliver by post www.lloydsdirect.co.uk is one company, but there are others.
It says they deliver to the whole of the UK

I have just found out today from my surgery that the local charity company who have been delivering free of charge, prescriptions to housebound people since lockdown are discontinuing this service end of Sep 22.

So I asked the surgery then what and how do I get my prescriptions in future as I cannot use public transport to go to town and collect from a chemist, I have no family or anybody who could drive several miles to collect for me? I explained I am housebound and the receptionist said,"surely you have some family?". When I replied that I didn't she then said" and you have no neighbours either?" I replied again that one neighbour is disabled and housebound same as me, one works and is never at home and the other works and hardly see them neither do I know them very well."

Her answer was, "well you are the only patient in this practice in this position."

I said, " I cant believe that!"

She suggested I messaged the practice to explain my position. I did say could the surgery not post my prescription, I'm happy to pay but they don't offer this service anymore due to "risks" with prescriptions going missing.

I cannot believe that noone seems to care. Without my meds, I could die or have another stroke and maybe next time not be so lucky!

Anyone else live in a rural or isolated area on their own and have a similar problem? As I just dont know what I can do :-(

Florence in the hebrides

Edit: As sad as it is, I don't have hardly any friends, just 1 in this area who works full time. When you get divorced, it's amazing how your "friends" disappear!