To

[Guest guest]

HI !

First, how are you? I do hope you are doing well. I may be out of

touch as I have been away for a little while.

Thank you so much for your reply. I will certainly discuss this with

the GP. The system is different here in the UK but I hope to come up

with some solution to my wish to test very frequently. Your solution

sounds very sensible! It may or may not be possible for me.

I think if my specialist writes to the GP to suggest that I need to

test frequently, I would have the lancets and strips on

prescription, either free (as for diagnosed diabetics) or, more

likely, under the normal fixed price prescription system. This is

what usually happens with prescriptions here. Patients pay a fixed

price for whatever they need on prescription. This price is much,

much lower than the " real " market price. You can even buy a pre-

paid certificate for a year which is well worth it if you need a lot

of medication on prescription. This what I do. It covers all my pain

meds throughout the year, all my enzymes (Creon) and anything else I

may need for unrelated conditions. This costs about £120 a year and

is a lot cheaper than paying separately each time I need a

prescription. Of course, if you're healthy and are likely to need

nothing at all or, for example, just one dose of antibiotics in the

year, then it's not worth getting the pre-paid certificate; you may

just as well pay the fixed price for the item(s)at the time you need

them. I even get my gluten-free food with my certificate because the

docs are still uncertain as to whether or not I have coeliac

disease, diagnosed in 1988. My gastro thinks I should stay gluten-

free if it's helpful. My pancreatologist thinks the 1988 diagnosis

was probably wrong. If I do have coeliac disease as well as CP, I

need gluten-free foods and can have them on prescription. (I am only

entitled to plain foods, such as bread, on prescription....not fancy

cakes, biscuits etc!) They are so expensive that many coeliac

patients couldn't afford them in the shops and would not be able to

stick to their essential gluten-free diet.

Anyway, I'm seeing my pancreatologist in September to discuss my EUS

results. I'll ask him then if he'd write to the GP. The GP would

certainly do whatever the specialist advised but, otherwise, would

probably stick to the regulation that diabetics get their stuff on

prescription but nobody else can access it except by paying the full

cost. I may be doing the GP a disservice in saying this (it was my

local pharmacist who told me this was the system), but I think

that's what would happen.

You see, it's not through medical insurance that things are normally

paid for here in the UK but through the NHS (National Health Service)

which is simply a national medical insurance system; we pay

contributions out of our salaries on a sliding scale according to

how much we earn. Some people do also have private medical insurance

but it isn't usually used for visits to the GP, prescriptions etc.

If you have private medical insurance it might enable you to have a

shorter waiting time for a non-urgent operation, or to choose a

private room, or a private hospital, or the date of your choice for

an operation. There are different private insurance schemes, of

course, and the benefits depend on the scheme. Many people still

rely totally on the NHS. The NHS, first introduced after WW2, is

now groaning under the weight of everything patients need and want

to-day so the Government is looking for ways of integrating more

private schemes with the NHS. Complicated!!!

Thanks again, . Do let me know how you are. I am really

interested in people's prgress following TP/ICT. My local hospital

has a leading pancreatic unit but does not do the ICT. A TP has

been discussed with me as one possible approach to my problems of

chronic, advanced, hereditary pancreatitis.

Be well!

With very good wishes,

Fliss (UK)