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Health service bureaucracy

Posted By PeeJay

"Health service bureaucracy"

About: Belfast City Hospital / Respiratory medicine

(as the patient),

So I attended my respiratory consultant recently. As a result of this I was given a letter for my GP. Included in the letter were three drugs he was prescribing.

Consultant said try taking this to the pharmacy to see if they will issue without a prescription. Pharmacy said they couldn’t but could issue privately at a considerable cost.

So I left the letter at my surgery. Receptionist told me it would probably be the next week before these drugs were ready on prescription.

I feel this is a classic example of inefficiency. Surely in this modern era these details should be sent via secure email instead of the patient running around trying to organise everything?

Thankfully after a call to my surgery, a receptionist with a bit of sense sorted the matter allowing me to collect my prescription.

I feel the NHS needs to come into the real modern world.

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Responses

Response from Margaret Reid, Service manager, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust 2 weeks ago
We have made a change
Margaret Reid
Service manager,
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 29/04/2024 at 20:17
Published on Care Opinion at 20:17

Good evening my name is Margaret Reid, Service Manager, Respiratory Services, Belfast health and Social Care Trust (BHSCT). I am sorry your experience of attending respiratory outpatients made you exasperated. Currently within BHSCT we are implementing a new computerised system that will store all patient records electronically and will link departments together. It is envisaged this will enable us to share information electronically with other clinicians ultimately negating the need for prescriptions to hand written. I hope this response helps to reassure you that times are currently changing within the NHS.

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by PeeJay (the patient)

Hi Margaret, thanks for your response. Just to be clear, I have no issue with the respiratory clinic. It's the other end of the chain I was so exasperated with.

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