Hospital discharge and gp lack of information on computer

Our local Boots pharmacy, adjacent to GP surgery, was closed yesterday. It only opens until 12 on a Saturday anyhow.

I assume they couldn’t get a pharmacist, who often is shipped in from a good distance away.

We have found the same cornergran. We had to provide a copy of the discharge letter from the hosptal to the GP and try and sort the new medications. Also DH had paramedics out early one morning 2 weeks sent by 111 and they said that all their tests and observations could not be sent to the GP. Their IT systems were not linked. That seems an enormous gap. However the GP would be advised about the out of hours call.

There’s a huge gulf between our GP practice and hospitals. Letters take a month to arrive after in patient discharge or outpatient appointments, hospital blood tests are not available to the GP, medication is invariably muddled. GPS get very frustrated and rely on patients to update them. It’ pressure when anyone is trying to manage their Ill health.

My son had a minor operation about 10 days ago. He went back to the hospital yesterday afternoon because he was having problems with the wound. Antibiotics were prescribed and the doctor who saw him wondered what the surgeon had been thinking as he should have signed him off for two weeks. Of course when he got home the local pharmacy was closed so he went out this morning to get his prescription. Both our local pharmacies were closed "Due to unforeseen circumstances"!? Luckily he could drive round until he found another one but, as he said, what about people who aren't that mobile?

foxie48 it’s even more difficult when trying to find out what a confused friend needs on discharge. I was discharged from hospital with a crate of injections and pain killers which I didn’t need but the intentions were good. For my friend though I was surprised to find that the gp didn’t seem to have any record at all of her hospital stay and discharge meds. It took two phone calls to the hospital to sort it out. So on the one hand, the NHS app is useful but the time lag between hospital discharge and handover to the gp can feel quite daunting. I think the technology is there in the health system but it needs to be tweaked in the way information flows to the gp. If this makes sense ….

Ronib I've had two hospital discharges this year. The first time I was sent home with enough drugs to last me for a couple of weeks, my GP was sent notes on my discharge and information about how to reduce the pain killers slowly so I did not suffer withdrawal. It went very smoothly except it was sometimes difficult to get hold of the drugs but that's another story.
The second time I wasn't given any drugs so I had to wait for my notes to get sent to the GP. There was a delay so my GP suggested I chase it up myself which I did by contacting the consultants secretary. The meds were changed again at a clinic appointment, this time I was given a prescription to hand in to my GP, I had to wait for the GP to sign it off and then for the pharmacy to put them up, basically took the best part of a week! I find the NHS app really useful as I can see if notes have been added and if my prescriptions have been updated. I can also send the GP messages via their website and find they deal with them really quickly but nothing flows as quickly as it should and if there's a weekend or a bank holiday everything gets slowed down even more. I think my GP surgery is pretty good so I imagine it can be much worse at other surgeries.

Have had that issue, too.
Had an appointment arrive by post, so they could review how my new meds were working, except I had no new meds, and the dept at the hospital never answered their phone or phoned back when I left a message.

My GP did not get the hospital updates, new meds, discharge letter for about a month after DH came home last year. I took in his copy of the discharge letter and they scanned it onto their system. Without it they could not prescribe the new meds. Pretty crucial really.

Whenever I have been discharged from hospital, I have always been given a paper copy of my discharge letter, with changes to any to medication on it.

I've spent the last couple if years trying to coordinate hospital and specialist treatments, appointments, and results.
The upside is that when/if I go back to work, I'll be able to do NHS admin, I'd imagine.

When I came out of hospital last month there was a whole raft of new drugs. It has been very difficult getting it all sorted at my dispensing practice.