Missed Hormone injection

Hi Safeways I am not medically trained but doubt it will matter.  Who is going to administer the drug.  I think it has to be given by a trained person.  Good luck, David

Hi Safeways

im really sorry that you are experiencing all these difficulties and hope you soon get the injection you need.

for us, my husband has only had to ring our GP practice for an appointment and turn up for that to receive the injection from a nurse there. 

my suggestion is that the runaround you have been given is totally unacceptable and I would certainly be making a formal complaint to one or all of: the surgery practice manager, your primary care network manager, your Integrated Care Board, the care Quality Commission - depending upon which level you want to go in at. 

happy to explain what the different layers are if you want to complain but please remember that, by complaining, you are helping others that will follow you and that if you do make a complaint in a proper way , you cannot be penalised in terms of poorer care.

i have complained several times!

Hi Dave

The nurses in radiotherapy suite sent me to the receptionist who took the medication off me and disappeared, two minutes later she came back with a senior nurse from the chemotherapy unit, come with me, like my GP she hadn't administered a hormone injection but quickly mixed the medication and gave my injection, like my GP I felt nothing.

Two days later it felt if I had been kicked by a horse but has disappeared, I await the effects it will have on me, the one sent me into a downward spiral of depression and fear of the unknown.

I have 10 days left of my radiotherapy and so far have suffered little effects from it.

Twice I had too much gas so was sent packing, but the nurse told me to try WindSetlers, which after a telephone to my GP was prescribe and forwarded to the Tesco pharmacy, a ten minute walk from the hospital accomodation.

Windsetlers have fixed my wind problems and the subsequent fraction have been going very well.

Scotland is undergoing huge changes in the NHS.

I remember when I was nursing having a patient who needed an i’injection for prostate cancer’ . This was a drug none of us registered nurses on my ward had ever administered and had no available instructions on how to administer! This is a big dilemma professionally when you are accountable for both your actions and omissions. To give the drug not knowing the correct way to mix and administer is dangerous. To not give a prescribed drug at the required time is classed as an omission and a drug error. What to do? We obviously contacted pharmacy and urology for advice and even turned to the internet. If I recall correctly, the only instructions we could find were in Spanish! In my area, perhaps the most commonly used language after English at that time was Gujerati - not a lot of help! Urology eventually and after a lot of pleading, sent someone to help.

Roll forward several years and my husband needed a decapeptyl injection. Afterwards he had tremendous pain around the injection site. I looked at the site and realised that the injection had been given well outside the area recommended for intramuscular injections in the buttock. I also asked how the injection had been prepared - the nurse had shaken the two substances and not ‘rolled ‘ it gently to mix and hence the pain he experienced. A gentle word to the nursing team on a flu jab appointment alerting them to the errors seems to have resolved the problem!

I hope this helps to explain some of the difficulties front line staff and patients come across:) I hope, too, everything goes more smoothly for you.

This reminded me of when I turned up for my first hormone injection. I'd booked the appointment but when I arrived the GP asked me if I had brought it with me! He went off to make enquiries and came back with the drug and syringe in his hand. It had been in a fridge all along. It came down to a small breakdown in communications within the surgery team. The GP told me to speak to him directly when making the next appointment so he could make sure that everything was in place. It's gone smoothly ever since. My advice is make it very clear when you book the appointment that their pharmacy needs to make sure the drug is ordered and available. Speak to them nicely if you can! 

... And speak to your oncologist about the medication mix up so they can help deal with it. I once had a delay of about a week in getting the 3 month injection, which the oncologist said wouldn't be a problem, but I think a month might be pushing it. 

Hi Safeways , glad you got the jab.  Maybe start talking to the surgery a month before the next one is due! David

I have to do that.

It appears that my diary system is better than theirs.

Sigh.

Hi Safeways , I don’t know if a month will make a difference . We had a huge problem with our GP practice as they initially didn’t want to take ownership of giving the Prostap . It took a letter from our Oncologist to set them straight . They then started saying every three months but the letter clearly stated every 12 weeks . So  we have a spread sheet from the oncologist and we gave the surgery a copy but still  have to call for appointments and the Prostap injection . 

I was in  quite some pain for three days after the 2nd injection, the first one, by my GP painless. I will send my GP a reminder when the next date gets close.