Why can't pharmacist's data-bases be linked??

The BBQ Pit
1

In fact, I’m pretty damned sure they already are here in Australia…so why am I in severe pain tonight?

I’ve got a chronic back condition that is sometimes exacerbated with a goody-fun-fun slipped disc. If you’ve had one, you know what sort of pain I’m talking about.

I made an appointment today with my regular GP*, but when I went to start the car, found I had a flat battery. :smack: By the time the Roadside Assistance people had gotten me going, it would have been too late to get to my appointment. Rang the GP to cancel, but decided to go to a local clinic to get some relief for the night of agony I knew was coming.

Guess what? The local clinic doesn’t write scripts for anybody for anything that might vaguely be construed as addictive. So no benzos, no sleepers, and certainly NO FUCKING PAINKILLERS. What? What? I can barely walk without crippling pain, and even when standing or sitting still, one leg is numb and the other throbbing like a fucking toothache…and you won’t prescribe painkillers?

Now I understand the general gist of their philosophy. They don’t want to enable junkies in their quest to score. I get that, truly I do.

But what about the rest of us in pain?

Last time I got a prescription for narcotic painkillers was back in January (when I last did a number on my back). It was app 3 days supply, and it’s now six months down the track. Does that indicate a slavering dependency upon the pills?? FFS.

Why the fuck can’t dispensing pharmacists have a linked database that will show PRETTY FUCKING QUICKLY whether somebody is likely to be abusing the drugs, vs those of us who need them for acute situations but more rarely? Then they can send a flag to the Doc doing the prescribing to alert him/her/them that they might want to do a bit more investigation before prescribing again.

In the meantime, my back is fucken’ spasming like a muthafucka and I’m tres grouchy.

Fuck.

:mad:

*My regular GP will gladly write a prescription for a short course of painkillers. However, he’s 40km away and after today’s stuff-up with the car, it might be a few more days before I can make my way over again.

2

Can he write the script and fax it to a pharmacy close to where you live for dispensing and delivery?

As to your original question, I thought pharmacies were linked because they take your name and address if you purchase some S3 medications. Why do this if a person is shopping around for analgesics?

3

Exactly…and also the Federal Safety Net thingy that tracks your scripts so that when you reach whatever threshold it is, reduces the costs of the prescription. They’re tracking us all the time!

So why the fuck can’t they just log my name in and see that I’M NOT A FUCKING JUNKIE ‘doctor shopping’ for some groovy pills. Maybe if I’d filled a script a couple of weeks ago there might be cause for concern, but SIX MONTHS AGO??

Geez I’m shitty. :mad:

And yeah, as to your first point, I’ll ring my GP tomorrow and get him to fax a script.

As for tonight…god only knows. :frowning:

4

Hot packs and Nurofen plus are all I can suggest for tonight. Hope it works out.

5

Can’t do Nurofen (pre-existing other stuff that anti-inflammatories rev up). Hot packs are helping for now though.

Also the liberal application of SHITLOADS OF BOOZE so when I do go to sleep I’ll be unconscious until morning…with a bit of luck! :smiley:

Quite seriously, I’m tempted to phone a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend…etc who actually deals drugs. Isn’t that insane? That otherwise straight and law-abiding folk who wouldn’t know an ‘illegal’ drug if they tripped over it (no pun intended :D) might have to resort to the street to get relief??

Fuck me dead. I am so writing a scathing letter to my local MHR tomorrow to find out what sort of dumb thinking is behind such a stupid policy!

6

Mersyndol? Or is it the codeine which you can’t take, in which case, yeah lotsa booze might be a short-term solution.

What gets me is that, if I buy too many Sudafed, everyone knows it because it’s logged. Good luck with the MHR. They’re too busy trying to push the Budget.

7

Codeine is fine…the bastard Doc just wouldn’t prescribe it because, y’know, that’s what junkies want! It’s the ibuprofen that fucks me over (stomach ulcer etc, and interacts with my BP meds).

Too many? I thought when you buy even one pack of Sudafed you have to provide your Medicare Card, your Birth Certificate, your car rego and ownership papers AND proof of ownership of your own KIDS (and the dog for good measure)!!

Fark, the system’s farked!

:cool:

8

Oh they might well know all that stuff. I don’t buy Sudafed because the palpitations it gives me are worse than the symptoms I’m trying to alleviate.

Is there any chance you could get a (small) stash of your preferred analgesia in case this happens again? I had some Panadeine Forte left over from when I had my wisdom teeth removed. I kept it on hand ‘in case’. I never actually needed it and threw it out when it reached the use by date but it was handy to have about because I used to get migraines back in the day.

9

I’ve had friends approach me in a time of need and I’ve been happy to dip into my “Emergency Use Only” stash. Know anyone that could do you a solid?

10

Linking the databases is the first step in taking away our guns.

11

Florida is the drug-seeking capital of the world, so we adopted a statewide pharmacy dispensing database in 2009 (“E-FORCSE”). It’s not perfect - you could still just drive across the border to Georgia and get all the narcotics you want - but it helped, apparently.

12

Yep, you can go to another state and avoid the reporting system. That’s exactly why so many of your pre-registry drug seekers were from Kentucky–they were avoiding our reporting system. Sorry about that. It did make for some really cheap flights to Tampa and Orlando during the week, though, so it’s not all bad.

13

Diversion of legitimate prescriptions is part of the problem. A lot of medical providers are overreacting to that. I’m sorry you’re in pain. If it’s severe enough, go to the ER. They’ll almost certainly write you something, but it won’t be cheap.

14

Kept our Waffle Houses humming, too, which was a matter of some concern when I was in college. :smiley:

The OP is in Australia.

15

And they haven’t built emergency rooms in the bush yet, by cracky.

16

Well, no. They call them emergency departments. And they have free healthcare there, so it will be cheap.

17

First off, the health care is not free, it is paid for, just not on an individual basis. And secondly, if that were working so well, the OP would be able to get pain relief without jumping through the proverbial hoop right?

18

Sounds to me like the issue in the OP doesn’t even need the pharmacists to be linked, but the doctors. If the doctors have access to the patient’s complete history, any flags get raised before the scrip is even written, not when it’s being filled.

Works for other issues as well, such as medical incompatibilities, allergies, etc., and saves time by doctors not needing to “do a history” on every new patient.

19

Actually, there’s a two-tier health system in Australia. Medicare (which is funded by a levy on taxpayers) covers everybody for free treatment in a public hospital and visits to an (ever diminishing) number of general practitioners (those who ‘bulk-bill’). Many general practitioners are now choosing to bill outside the medicare system, with a regular visit costing the patient upwards of $50 per consultation. If they bulk-bill under Medicare, I think the Dr receives $35 per consultation (from the govt).

Now if a patient has private health insurance, they may be able to claim some (or all) of their costs of visiting a GP back from the insurance company, depending on the level of cover they have. For those of us who choose to not take out private health insurance (for financial or philosophical reasons) we are left with paying quite hefty out of pocket expenses UNLESS we can find a Dr who bulk-bills his/her patients.

Of course, bulk-billing Doctors are in much demand, especially amongst the lower socio-economic demographic. Many are ‘walk in’ clinics, so no appointments are necessary, but also means that waiting times can be horrendous. For the others that book appointments, it can mean a wait of some weeks before one becomes available.

Soooo, more and more people are using public hospital A & E departments as de-facto General Practitioners. ‘Bit of a sniffle’, a minor cut on your leg, a dodgy back (as in my case)…going to the hospital instead of your GP is putting an enormous strain on the already stretched resources and budgets of our (otherwise wonderful) Public Hospitals.

Yes, I could have gone to the hospital for pain relief. In fact last time I bunged a disc, I ended up there in the back of an ambulance with analgesia a’plenty. But this time wasn’t quite so horrific, and given that I could manage to DRIVE myself to the Doctor, didn’t want to waste the hospital’s time with my petty malingering! :smiley:

Australia’s health system isn’t perfect by any means. But it’s doing OK by most measures.

Just as an example, if I suffer an accident and have a MAJOR injury, I will most likely be admitted to one of our fine Public Hospitals for treatment, regardless of whether I earn a million dollars a year or 10k. I will be treated by the same doctors and nurses, have the same level of excellent care and will expect the same medical outcomes at the end of my hospital stay. My follow up rehab may differ slightly depending upon my social status (if I earn a million I might have a private physiotherapist for example) but otherwise, it doesn’t matter whether you’re homeless or you’re a big-wig in the business world…you will get the finest of world-class medical treatment.

But if you’ve got a crook back and wanna see a Dr quickly in a suburb where there’s naff-all bulk-billing doctors, and those that do don’t prescribe decent drugs…then yer’ fucked! :smiley:

20

Have you tried a TENS Machine? I rented one for labour (and was pretty effective in the early stages) - you can buy them too. Heard people use them for non-pharma pain reduction.