Madam, - I was recently discharged from hospital with a prescription for medication to treat a severe heart condition. In order to receive my medication I had to go first to my GP and then to my local chemist.
This procedure is required for all patients with discharge prescriptions, and, even if it runs smoothly, the patient will have to wait up to three days to receive his/her medication. Furthermore if there is a hitch (e.g. the GP or the chemist cannot read the prescription) the whole exercise can take a week.
In my case it did, and my wife, who is also my carer, had to make several phone calls to the hospital, and numerous visits to the GP and the chemist before the full amount of medication was supplied.
In discussing this potentially lethal and inevitably stressful situation with my wife, she came up with the excellent suggestion that the hospital should provide the patient on discharge with a week's supply of medication.
This is surely the best way to avoid the baleful and baneful state of affairs that obtains at present.
Mary Harney, please take note. - Yours, etc.,
PETER MEW, Kiltegan, Co Wicklow.