"Not able to have medication because of the cost"

Nothing but failure in duty of care from this GP surgery. Recently my very chronically ill brother has been diagnosed with throat cancer. He cannot swallow properly which is a problem with some of his medication. Palliative care asked for my brother's mental health medication to be given in liquid form. The GP actually phoned my brother and told him he could not have this medication in liquid form as it’s too expensive; so what the GP is saying is that you cannot have your medication for your mental health? How can a doctor speak to a patient who is terminally ill in a way like that? I feel it’s absolutely disgraceful.

My brother needs this medication. My brother has constantly been neglected by this surgery , I know they can give it to him. I have had so many issues with this lot the way they have treated him, if I did not have daily input with him I believe he would not be here now because of their poor treatment. I was so horrified and kicked up such a fuss about this.

One lovely staff member helped me and spoke with the duty doctor who gave him a very small bottle, but no intention of giving any more because apparently there has to be a meeting to discuss whether they can allow him to have the medication in liquid. I asked myself what is there to discuss, this man so chronically ill and has such a little quality of life who desperately needs this medication. Why is there any question that he would not be able to have it because of the cost? I feel this should not be an issue at all. I am so sick and tired of arguing and putting up with the attitude of some doctors at this doctor surgery, what value do you put on somebody’s life?

I wonder my brother is housebound and I had a phone call from him to say he believes he has another chest infection so I called Longrove surgery and took the option for a callback. 45 minutes later no callback so I emailed them and got an email back saying that you cannot use this email and if you use it anymore we will not deal with your request, which does not surprise me because they don’t seem to care. So I called again and after 25 minutes waiting I’ve got a call back from the lovely staff member who helped before, who seems to be one of the only ones in that surgery that cares, they are absolutely amazing and I don’t know what I’ve done without them, it’s a shame the doctors we spoke to couldn’t behave in the same way. This staff member spoke to the doctor, who then phoned me and said they were going to send some antibiotics to the chemist and send Rapid Response out to check my brother over.

I spoke with my brother later on in the evening and he told me Rapid Response had been, they took his observations and said that , he was okay but didn’t bother to check his chest so what was the point of that?

In my experience, this doctor surgery is not fit for purpose.