doctor handing over prescription

Be the change you wish to see (with your GP)

What do you do when a prescription doesn’t go far enough?

Do you sit back and say oh well, we’ve run out?

Of course not!

And what do you do if this happens again and again?

Do you get frustrated or look for the solution through partnership? – One of the values here at Discovery.

We know how complex it can be for autistic people or people with learning disabilities to get the right healthcare.

The LEDER report shows that:

  1. People with learning disabilities are five times more likely to end up in hospital for preventable issues that their GP can treat.
  2. Men with learning disabilities live 23 years less than the general population.
  3. Women with learning disabilities live up to 29 years less.

Almost all GPs surveyed said they would like extra training on how best to support an autistic person or someone with learning disabilities.

That’s why Dimensions developed #MyGPandMe – a campaign to provide free reasonable adjustments training for all GP surgery staff and call on policymakers to reduce health inequality.

We know managers up and down Somerset will be partnering with local healthcare in all sorts of innovative ways. Tell us and you’ll help us share more great practice, like Keinan, who realised a pattern was forming with prescriptions running short, and knew he needed to go one step further.

person taking prescription from GP
*Picture of a person taking a prescription from their doctor

So what’s the problem?

The local GP practices set the reviews four weekly and only prescribe four weeks’ worth of medication, so on the day, there’s a rush to get more medication, and unfortunately, this time the pharmacies didn’t have any in stock.

So Keinan wrote a letter – partnership in action:

Good afternoon,

I hope you’re well. We recently had a medication error in a home I manage, so we undertook a root cause analysis. We wanted to share some of the learning with you in the hopes we can work together to try and prevent this from happening again. Please understand that this isn’t about blame or fault but rather an opportunity to work collaboratively to see if we can come up with a solution that prevents this from occurring again. I have some ideas and I’d like to discuss them with you if we can? I know that change can be difficult with the policies, procedures & regulations, but I’m sure we can work together to find a solution.
Kind regards,
Keinan Cooper, Discovery Locality Manager

“I had responses from both, which were really nice!”

-Keinan

That’s what happens when you send such a nice letter, Keinan 🙂

One pharmacy said where people pay for prescriptions; it’s impossible to issue more than four weeks. However, because the people we support don’t pay, they’d be happy to issue five weeks’ worth. That’s now added to the notes of the people we support there, plus they are reviewing it as a practice.

Keinan has also spoken to:

  1. The local learning disability doctor who is feeding this back to her colleagues.
  2. The pharmacies who said they can’t change the prescriptions to more than four weeks, but they can get an extra week if needed.

He isn’t stopping there either, as he says:

“It can’t just be us this is happening to”

-Keinan

Plus, his NICE letter has gone to NICE: the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to see if this practice can get changed nationally.

And that’s how you can be the change you wish to see with your GP.

No wonder Keinan and his team keep getting Inspirational People Nominations!

Feeling inspired to make a difference and help the people we support #GetMoreFromLife?

If so, you can complete our quiz here to see if a career change in this direction would be a good move for you.

The Dimensions group (which Discovery is a part of) has been officially accredited as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces by the Great Place to Work Institute for two years running. Additionally, this year, we received a “Wellbeing” award.