Moving on

To update on the healthcare disaster over the last couple of weeks, leading Mummy to write a Complaint letter to local GP, which didn't get sent as it turned out, we had a visit from the health visitor yesterday. The poor woman had to listen to the whole sad story, and in fairness I think she realised how upset we were getting. She had a look at the pill-cutter that we had to use and said herself that it seemed difficult. She went back to the surgery to speak to a GP, then called me back.

Matthew now has a prescription for his Omeprazole as one tablet a day so that we can dose it safely, and for his Domperidone that we already had. She's also now managed to get the prescription for his vitamin drops. We didn't blog that fiasco but basically nobody wants to pay for Matthew's vitamin drops and so the GP and chemist kept bouncing us back and forward, and in the end we paid for them ourselves to make sure he got them. It's the same problem as with his Omeprazole tablets really, in that it's all about money. She also got the script written for 2 months supply and put on repeat so that we only have to collect it every couple of months. This is a big help.

BUT...

She checked and Omeprazole isn't available as a liquid. This is despite us finding over 20 references to it on UK websites such as this one. They all seem to agree that the reason for it "not existing" when you ask is that it costs the NHS 5 times as much as the tablets. Frankly, we don't care.

Firstly, it is for a baby and both Mummy and Daddy pay their contributions. They have done since they started working at 16 years of age and neither of them ever visit the doctor themelves, so we would say they deserve some of that back in the form of necessary medication for their infant son, who is suffering.

Secondly, and we feel strongly about this one, under no circumstances is it acceptable for a health professional to lie to us. That is NEVER ok and we are thoroughly disgusted. They've ignored us when we said he was ill, resulting in his being hospitalised all those months ago. They've fobbed us off when we asked them to check his medication, twice, resulting in his being undermedicated and therefore causing his weight gain to stall again. As a result of this, he is now going for a barium meal next week, which no doubt will be stressful for the whole family. We then had difficulty even getting a reasonable prescription dosed for him. Then to boot, WE ARE LIED TO???!!! It gets better...

When Mummy asked last about the prescription for vitamin drops, the receptionist read from Matthew's file: "These are not routinely prescribed. They can be obtained through Minor Ailments at the pharmacy. Infant Feeding Guidelines recommend vitamin supplements for breastfed babies." However, she was told by the Health Visitor that the GP had not prescribed them because he "didn't know the Infant Feeding Guidelines recommended vitamin supplements." Shouldn't a GP know that? And, oh yes, HE WROTE IT ON THE DAMN FILE A MONTH AGO!!! LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!!!

Anyway he was weighed and he seems to have lost 50 grams, and that was with the nappy on this time. HV says not to worry because it might be because of the hospital scales used for the last reading, but then that would be just as bad because then he hadn't gained last time either. She's coming back on Thursday again.

It's a good thing that Mummy isn't back at work any time soon because she'd need:
- 1 day off a week to sit in for the Health Visitor
- 1 day off a month to go to the hospital
- 1 day off a week to argue with the GP
- 1 day off a month (2 months now, to be fair) to argue with the pharmacist
and therefore probably couldn't hold down any job, let alone the one she was doing!

Why is everything so hard?!
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On a plus side, his first tooth is finally starting to make an appearance and he has a little jaggy bit now. No more cake!!!