You've Got To Wonder

[poliphilo]

My doctor has changed my generic painkiller for a branded one which contains the same active ingredients but must surely cost the Health Service more and is certainly harder to source. We went to a couple of pharmacies. The first said, "We haven't had this in for months and- since you're from out of town we're not offering to order it for you" and the second didn't have it in either but will get it for us. By the time I have the product in my pathetically grateful mitts we'll have burned a lot of petrol running it to earth.

One hears a lot about drug companies bribing doctors to prescribe their gear. I'm not saying this is what has happened in this particular instance but if I were a fearless investigative journalist and not a drug-dependent saddo I'd be asking questions.

Comments

[moth-wingthane.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I've just had the opposite problem. I have to pick up a specific brand of medication for mum as it's more convenient to use but the pharmacy refused to dispense it on grounds of cost. Never mind that we've been doing this for years already. Even when our doctor authorised the cost they still refused, so we ended up going to a different pharmacy. I'm convinced that there is some budgetary prestidigitation going on.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's strange.

We asked the pharmacist if she could give us the generic drug in place of the branded one but she said she wasn't allowed to
diverge from what the doctor had written.