I really should entitle this post as a change of town, but that’s a longer story.
I relocated 7 weeks ago at the time of writing this and hadn’t been here long when my pharmacy, in my old town, told me that my prescription was ready to be collected. Unfortunately I didn’t feel that I could rely on anyone to get it to me so I asked at a more local pharmacy to issue my essential meds instead. That took 2 days but was sorted, in the end.
That prescription had been the last in a batch so that meant asking, a few weeks later, for the next precription and (hopefully) a 6 month batch again).
I decided that, when I moved, I needed to make a clean break. I visited a local GP surgery and asked to be added to their patient roll. The staff directed me to their website and that had a few questions about lifestyle and existing conditions so I filled this all in. There was nothing there about transgender status so I left it. A day later I had a text confirming my registration and a day after that confirmation of the name of my GP.
Some may be aware that I had tried to change my GP two years ago and had gone as far as submitting a long multi-issue complaint letter to the local GP management (the laughable Integrated Care Board). That complaint, despite some great writing (by me) and professional advice (from others) ultimately failed.
Amongst the issues were the fact that my previous GP had botched my GIC referral 3 times (!) and had stopped all care for a separate long term medical condition. It was this condition that I declared to the new GP surgery.
I submitted my prescription request in writing as apparently, since I’m a new patient, I couldn’t use their app or the NHS app. That same afternoon the surgery called and asked if I could attend for a review … this will have been the first time in probably 3 years that I have been inside a consulting room!
So, next week I shall introduce myself to a new medical team …. let’s see what challenges it brings? I might even find out whether my NHS record includes my transgender status?
Since then I had contacted the NHS Business Services Agency as I have a prescription exemption card. Whilst the NHS patient database had been updated, the Business Services DB hadn’t. Sorted that over the phone. Next I dropped an email to the Tavistock & Portman GIC which my updated details, as they don’t use the NHS database either!
So, life continues but I’m hopeful that I may make some progress with a new GP.
It will be interesting if they take my height/weight etc as I can now get into size 14! That’s down from an 18 2.5 years ago.