Is the NHS still "Fit for purpose"

Whilst not wishing to dismiss how important these pens are for certain people (I have a young family member with a sesame allergy), I doubt they are smart enough to stop working exactly on the end date and in an emergency would do the job for a while afterwards.

I think there is currently an in date and an out of date collection kept here in case endless reading of ingredient lists fail to work.

Every time I see the out of date one I have an almost uncontrollable urge to stab myself with it, endlessly amuses others.

How Long Do EpiPens Last?

The summary seems to be that while most EpiPens are expiry dated for around 12 months after manufacture, they still retain 90% of their drug dosage after 30 months. 

An expired EpiPen may not be as potent as one that is unexpired. But, in the event of anaphylaxis, an expired EpiPen is probably better than no EpiPen at all. Furthermore, research shows that most epinephrine auto-injectors (EAIs) retain 90% of their drug content for up to 30 months after their expiration date.....The expiration date for most EpiPens is at least 12 months after its manufacturing date. However, research shows that epinephrine auto-injectors continue to meet FDA requirements for epinephrine potency up to 30 months post-expiration date.

Although I'd suggest that how you store it might be a consideration. My other half's will go into bike bag, rucsac and similar and may therefore by subject to less than ideal temperature range. 


On another note. I'd question whether you need to use the MySurgery app. for this. I use Pharmacy2U, who took over Lloyds Direct, which took over Echo.....Anyway, the point is that they will hook up with the doctor surgery. I use them as a deliver to door service. Leave it to them to do the communication with the GP surgery. If you set up your account with them, then load up your prescriptions yourself, they will then validate those with the surgery.

Of course, if the surgery is insisting on a review first then it will break at that point. But that sounds like a dumb receptionist response, given the nature of the prescription. 

Went to see GP this morning routine appointment following up on a specialist visit.

GP told me exactly what the Consultant had said, she then said she would refer me to a specialist ( consultant said she would do that to save time ) - I thought that was what I'd seen ! surely a consultant is a specialist but ...

GP also asked for blood tests , make an appointment at reception

Go to reception "can I make an appointment for blood tests" 
30th at 12:30 ,
sorry I have another appointment then, what other times do you have free
I have a free appointment in 5 minutes if you'd like to wait

amongst the things to be checked for Vitamin D levels

Nearly a month ago I did something to my knee.

When the pain was still there after 2 weeks I made an appointment to see GP only a 5 day wait.

GP says there is some instability and he can feel it grating as I move it. So he give me a form to take to hospital for x-rays.

yesterday I drove to my nearest hospital after being there 2 hours I was told I wouldn't be seen yesterday and to come back today.

today I was shopping in another local town and thought OK lets try the hospital - in and out in 10 minutes, of course 4-6 weeks to get the report sent back to my GP.

but why can the service be so bad in one and good in another.

Also interesting the one with quick service was neat and tidy as were the staff, the other staff looked scruffy and the waiting area even though it only had 5 patients in over the 2 hours was a disaster zone and the whole time I was there a group of staff were sat in one corner 2-3 left and others joined but at least 2 were sat there the whole time.

Thursday last week I get a phone call from the surgery, to tell me the results of my X-rays are back, and can I make an appointment to see Doctor to discuss.
I replied "ok when have you got a free appointment" 
"nothing for this week you'll have to ring on Monday when we open next weeks appointments, phone lines will open at 8"


8 Am I ring and number 35 in queue,
get through just after 9:30, ask for an appointment - "first available is Thursday at 16:00" I explained I'm going away on Thursday for a few days and won't be back until Tuesday next week, magically an appointment has appeared at 8:30Am Wednesday.

But how crazy is the system, that appointments for the week come free on Monday AM but someone on the phone as soon as lines open gets offered late Thursday, that presumably means anyone ringing on Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday etc will be told all appointments are full and ring back next Monday.

and no it's not people booking online, that system was taken down during covid and hasn't been reinstated as it was discriminatory against those without IT skills or a smartphone or laptop.

sorry to hear what you and your wife are going through. Wish you all the best.

The NHS systems are a total joke. It's meant to be a "National" Health service. Its far less joined up and friction free than most of the decent european health systems. 

So you will like this. We had two chemists on the isle of Portland, both over loaded ,very busy . They shut one of them this year, the remaining one has not had a chemist for about 5 years , it uses locums, when no locum available no dispensing. The chemist will not dispense in less than 3 working days of receipt of a prescription. The doctor takes 2 working days (closed weekend,s)to create a prescription on request of the hospital. So the epilepsy centre at Poole gets around this by sending down a prescription to the dispensary on the co located site at Poole hospital from which the drugs are couriered in a round robin of chemist  sites in Dorset on a list every day. The list is out of date and nobody seems to know who maintains it. The nearest working chemist on the list is Dorchester, 20 miles away.
So when I expressed the opinion this was not very efficient I was told you have no idea , gp,s are independent businesses and a one man band Gp in Bournemouth would have nothing to do with any of the systems the hospital uses , so the only way to communicate if it was urgent (email and phone calls were rarely responded to) was to get in in a car drive there and wait till he was available to talk to him!!
Though the same system exists at Dorchester and Weymouth hospital , messages can be sent to Dorchester but not Weymouth so Dorchester takes Weymouth messages and copies and pastes to Weymouth, same system,nobody knows why or who is responsible to fix it.