I've just had my local pharmacist shame me for being a drain on NHS resources. I take various different meds, some for my cancer treatment but most for dealing with side-effects caused by the cancer treatment. Some to prevent me from having another stroke. One of the issues I've been dealing with is severe migraines, with blindness, vomiting and excruciating pain lasting up to three days at a time. I've had various different treatments for this, including nerve blocking injections in my head, but the only medication that really helped was rizatriptan.
However, rizatriptan isn't suitable for people who've had strokes, so they won't prescribe it any more. So it was back to the neurologist, trying various different treatments and meds until I was, a few months ago, prescribed rimegepant. This is nowhere near as good as rizatriptan, but it does help. So for the past couple of months I've been having this and I just went to get my most recent prescription filled.
The neurologist said I can take one every day as a preventative but the GP's surgery have been refusing to prescribe me more than 8 a month. They wouldn't say why, but today when I went to collect my prescription, the pharmacist had a go at me about the cost of the medication. I was literally just standing there waiting for it, and totally unprovoked he came out, handed me the bag and just started loudly complaining in front of all the other people about how this medication is too expensive, and his general tone and demeanour clearly said that I'm being a selfish drain on NHS resources, although he didn't dare actually say that in words.
I got home and googled the cost, it's £12 per tablet. Logically I know it's not my fault I need meds, but I just feel really ashamed and guilty now for being prescribed this. Maybe this explains why the GP surgery won't prescribe me one as a preventative each day. I'm wondering whether I should even bother to keep getting this prescription filled if the people at the pharmacy think so badly of me for taking it.
This isn't even the first time the NHS has complained about the cost of my meds. Some years ago, before my stroke when I was still taking rizatriptan, they tried to change me to a cheaper med, one I'd already tried that didn't work, saying rizatriptan was too expensive. (It's like £2 a tablet). I begged the woman not to change it and when she said she was changing it, I broke down in tears at the thought of going back to 3 day long torturous migraines. She actually laughed and told me to stop being dramatic, but in the end after getting advice on how to deal with her from people online, she agreed not to change it.
It's the same with receiving disability benefits, having to go through endless assessments and appeals, being given zero points and having my payments stopped, being left hungry and destitute. Again and again, this society shows me that i am nothing but an unwanted drain on resources, selfishly sponging off working people. Yet, they won't let me have a peaceful and painless exit. If assisted suicide was legal and free on the NHS, I would take it. They would save money then. But no, I can't access that service. They even make DIY suicide difficult by making the easier methods illegal and difficult to obtain. Just - what do they want? They don't want me dead but they don't want me alive either. I have two risk factors for stroke - my cancer treatment and my migraines, and I've already had one stroke at a young age. They tell me I'm at risk of another. Keeping my migraines to a minimum makes the chance of another stroke less likely and if I do have another it could be more severe and more life changing if I keep having uncontrollable migraines. Then they'll have to spend even more money on me.
Sorry just a rant because I'm feeling like worthless trash after my trip to the pharmacist. Just legalise assisted suicide and kill me already. But this society are cowards. They don't want to say "Yes, let's kill you as you're disabled," because they don't want to sound like nazis. So instead they slowly kill us by denying our benefit claims, leaving us homeless and hungry, changing our meds to cheaper ones that don't work and whatever else they can think of to get rid of us without making it look like societal murder.
12 Pounds a pill is nothing. That pharmacist should mind his own fucking business.
Absolutely despicable person. You are worth every penny it costs to keep you alive and well. You are not a drain on resources you are the reason for those resources. There is no one more worthy than you of them. Your contribution to society is priceless just by existing. The reason there is not enough to go around is not because of you it is the billionaires and millionaires who are greedy and have far more than their share. They are selfish, you are not for merely trying to exists healthy and happy.
Thanks. I wish society in general felt this way but I've had all kinds of nasty comments from members of the public too. Due to my benefits being stopped and the difficulty of accessing the local food bank, I begged a Christian organisation for help, believing that Christians provide food aid. The Christians refused to help me, told me that I shouldn't even be getting benefits because "that's socialism," and one told me "Man up and sort your own problems out." I'm not even a man so I guess it wasn't a gender-based insult just letting me know I'm pathetic lazy trash in the eyes of working people.
Those 'resources' exist for you. You do not need to justify your existence. Sabbath for man, not man for Sabbath. Even this pharmacist is there to make you better.
And let your neurologist know about this. They should be aware that their professional opinion, which they developed through years of training and experience, is valued less than £12.
The doctor and pharmacist are shitheads.
You deserve to be here and to use whatever resources are needed to keep you as healthy and pain-free as possible.
If your neurologist has said to use one tablet a day, they will be annoyed to find out that your GP is denying that because the GP is undermining the neurologist's work. They will likely support your case for you if you can email the neurologist and ask them to have a word with the GP.
If the GP or pharmacist don't like it, fuck them, they are an offence to their professions. They could always grow a backbone and stand up to the people who pretend that these things are zero-sum. Your prescription in no way denies anyone else their prescription. If your GP and pharmacist don't understand basic political economics, that's not your fault; they are wearing their ignorance on their sleeve and likely proud of it because it means they don't have to think about their own complicity in such a shit system (and your NHS is supposed to be one of the better health services!!).
Thanks. I am due another neurology appointment soon, I'll talk to them about it.
People spend £12 a day on lunch. Don't let the NHS make you feel bad for that. They're a public welfare program that is currently undergoing neoliberal shock therapy. Soon they'll be bothering you over paracetamol
I didn't think of it like this, but this does put it in perspective. Rishi Sunak spends £13K a year heating his private swimming pool but £12 a day to keep my pain and sickness levels lower is too much.
Medications are made for people. You are a person. You are deserving of care and medication.
I'm sorry you are feeling this way. I know it's hard to be understanding with yourself, especially after experiencing rejection, but you shouldn't take the blame. We, as a society, have the resources to care for everyone. It's not your fault specifically that these resources are distributed poorly.
Other people with disabilities in my life have expressed similar concerns to yours, so I guess I can say this is not an unfamiliar topic to me. Things I have discussed with these people are, for example, that our civilisation can and should be aimed at supporting and including everyone. Otherwise, it would be the same as arguing that a bat is more worthy of living in the forest than a rat, because it can fly and the rodent can't. Which is, of course, absurd.
Fuck that pharmacist, drain on human decency. Don’t ever feel feel bad to get your medication
Far easier said than done, but I'd seriously recommend using another GP and/or making a formal complaint. GP surgeries have a lot of oversight and "GP won't give you prescribed medicine and loudly complains at you when they do" is a pretty fair complaint. You have a right to dignified and discreet healthcare from the NHS. Changing GP is typically easy if there are others around, but otherwise, formally complain to the surgery, then escalate that complaint to the local health authority if they don't resolve it.
I've had to do it for being deliberately misled about my drugs before, and it was swiftly acted upon. I sent one email, and they publicly logged a change in internal procedure a week later.
I have thought about it recently, but all the GP surgeries (including mine) that I've seen are saying they're not taking new patients, I think there are too many patients and not enough doctors or something? Also a new surgery might be even more difficult about my meds. I actually used to have a good GP here but he retired recently and now it's mainly random locums, and that's if you can even get an appointment at all. They fob everyone off without appointments now. Like if you have an infection of some kind they tell you to get a consultation from the pharmacist, if you have muscle pain or mobility issues they tell you to refer yourself to the physio, etc. It's so difficult to just see a doctor if I need to, and get the prescriptions I'm meant to have. It feels lime healthcare in this country is just falling apart.
Suffering is the point for some of these people. The poor and the sick (especially where these intersect) deserve to suffer, after all, we live in a just world.
Privately owned pharmacies are a drain on the NHS too. Maybe you should suggest your pharmacist takes a pay cut. If all a state did was provided healthcare I'd probably be pro-state. It probably doesn't mean much, but as far as I am concerned you are welcome to it, life can't be measured in pounds.
It is frustrating that the conversation about assisted suicide is marred by all the in human removed who think killing people is an acceptable solution to the inconvenience of them remaining alive. It's your life OP, if you choose to end it, end it because you want to stop hurting, not because they are irritated by you being around. As reasons to live go, spite is a rather strong one.
I'm hurting myself more than them by being alive though. To them I'm just an annoyance, they are like daily mail readers annoyed that their taxes go to the unemployed, but who would be no better off if a particular unemployed person didn't exist. If I didn't exist any more they'd soon forget me and find someone else to complain about. But by being alive I'm always in pain, often nauseated, struggling with becoming partially sighted and learning to walk again, overwhelmed with dealing with my medical issues (appointments, treatments, fighting problems like this, organising prescriptions, etc), fighting my benefit appeal and knowing even if I win I'll have to go through it all again one day, struggling to get enough to eat, keep a roof over my head, etc. Even trying to get enough things like toilet paper, sanitary towels and toothpaste is a never ending stress and worry. It's just endless misery with no upside.
I won't waste your time telling you it will get better, or insult your agency by trying to convince you not to control your own death. But try not to pay any consideration to those removed who'd step on your corpse for a penny. It is your life and it is your pain and those are the only things to be considered.
We all will die. I hope that it is swift, peaceful, and on your terms.
People want you here. Even most of these shitheads you've had to deal with I'd bet. As individuals they don't see how they can make positive change.
I've been working in food service. When the opportunity has arisen I've been able to give food to people who have no means to pay. If I had a family or valued my own wellbeing a little more I wouldn't do this because I am certain it threatens my employment. We've got a system that puppets good people into being monsters and I hate it.
So again, people want you here and I hope I made a coherent point.
The NHS exists for you. Disability programs exist for you. Because the people want you to be cared for and have a dignified life. Gutted husk though it may be, the NHS probably the least shit part of the UK. All legitimate criticism of the NHS is that it doesn't do enough.
Fuck everyone who shames you for having a difficult life; crossing that line is something that makes them bad at being a human being. That's not a reflection of you, but of their own failure.
Thank you. But the majority of people I come across in real life make it clear they don't care if I am cared for or have a dignified life, they just see me as a burden.
The fact that one publicly shamed you and another put you down after you cried It sounds like they're on some psycho power trip. I would not be surprised if it's nothing to do with you or the cost of tax payer money but these people get off on bullying others. Sadly the health care industry is full of narcissists and bullies.
Here are some things I would say to the psychos:
- "We spend billions on the defence industry for hypothetical security threats that never happen, why can't we spend that money to save british lives from ACTUAL health threats that they can die from? How many people die from war every day vs. How many people die from cancer/strokes?"
- The cost of hospitalisation and the long term complications of your health problems would cost the NHS more than paying for the medication for the rest of your life.
- I would straight up infront of everyone, like you have written in your post, accuse them of eugenics. "If the medication is costing the government too much what is your solution for me? What is your final solution for me, for disabled, sick, or genetically unclean people who are a burden to society?"
- Brag about how much you're costing the NHS to piss them off. "Yeah I'm such a welfare queen, I hope my health gets worse so I can bankrupt the country, sometimes I think about eating car batteries so I can end up in the ER and suck dry their resources. Call me Princess Kate because I'm recovering from cancer and a huge drain on the tax payer". I don't think they're allowed to deny you your prescriptions but I'm not familiar with NHS entitlements so I would check with the NHS before doing this.
Most importantly, don't show them you're upset because they feed on your tears.
In the words of Che Guevara, the life of a single human being is worth millions of times more than all of the properties of the richest man on earth.
The NHS is there exactly to help you and make sure you get the care you need. You do not need to justify your existence, you did not choose to get sick, you do not have any reason to feel ashamed. It is the pharmacist and the GP who should be ashamed of themselves.
I know it can be difficult to do in the moment but you would have every right to tell the pharmacist to mind his own business and stop embarrassing himself.
I'm not normally a big fan of snitching but I think you should make a formal complaint against him. Even if you don't win he would still have to explain himself which will be unpleasant for him and he will be made aware that not everybody wants to hear his diatribe.
I'll think about complaining but I'm worried it will make things more difficult for me somehow.
Does anyone know whether the cost of free prescriptions comes out of the GP surgery's budget, the pharmacy's budget, or where, in the UK? I'm just trying to work out why the GP and the pharmacist care about the cost of my medicine.
Fuck them, take your medicine. It's the whole point of the NHS. There are fuckers in this country who spend your entire yearly pill supply on a single meal.
