Vaccination booking system

[Olive]

I made an appointment for two of us through the Book My Vaccine website.  Got the usual confirmations and a text reminder this morning.   We turned up at the venue to be told that they aren't vaccinating any more and the website had been notified but hadn't updated its information.   So we drove to the only other local provider, a pharmacy, to be told that they are out of stock, that they don't take bookings any more either, and that we should try them again in a few days' time to see if their new stock has arrived but it could be the week after.

So much for the productivity gains from sacking the back room staff who would have updated the web site:   this has used up at least an hour of two people's time.  

I am furious.   Covid is still real!

[zqwerty]

My doctors keep on prescribing medicines which the next door pharmacy does not have in stock, this has happened multiple times in the last two years of so, both entities are under new management with new staff and they don't seem at all phased or even worried by this repeated occurrence.

The medicines are in short supply in NZ not just locally as I have ascertained by repeated inquiries, they say,"supply chain problem" which never seem to ever be resolved.

Now I have new medicines which don't seem to be as good as the last ones, I don't know if it's the medicines which are not suitable, it's so difficult to tell what is illness and what is due to old age at this point in my life, all my doctors are much younger than me, and I don't like any of them much.

Can't seem to establish a rapport with any of them.

Medical care is just a money making scheme these days, same with vets, the corporations are taking over, and they are running the country as well.

Very worried about Covid as well, 75 is the wrong age to go into hospital and catch it, a most vulnerable age.

Between 3 to 10 people a week dying of Covid in I.C.U. units around the country, mostly older people, with multiple hundreds catching it each week.

My doctors is not called Waltham Medical Centre anymore it is called "Tend Medical" spit spit spit.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I am lucky. My chemist phones me when my vax is due. Txts me when a script needs renewal and delivers for free. My mega corp gp surgery though, doesn't do vaxes, constantly has staff turnover, and overworks its staff.

I love my pharmacy people. If only they could prescribe I wouldn't need the docs...

[Olive]

What makes me so furious is the pretence by this government that Covid doesn't exist and never existed, which is their way of pretending that the previous government didn't accomplish anything but simply "wasted" all that money. It is very depressing to see the news media's acceptance of this fantasy.

[zqwerty]

Just been told by a friend that my new doctor has just left Tend Waltham Medical, she only just arrived there a year or so ago and now she's gone.'

No official letter to me to let me know, how slack is that? So I have to go through all the rigmarole yet again with a new doctor.

And it looks as if there are big price increases, at least double.

[Olive]

Just been told by a friend that my new doctor has just left Tend Waltham Medical, she only just arrived there a year or so ago and now she's gone.'

No official letter to me to let me know, how slack is that?  So I have to go through all the rigmarole yet again with a new doctor.

And it looks as if there are big price increases, at least double.

Unfortunately the days have gone when each of us could rely on our "own" GP and I think your expectation of an official letter is unrealistic.    General practices are under tremendous pressure at present.

As for you having to go through another rigmarole - do you mean that the clinical records don't accurately reflect your situation?   It might be useful before your next appointment to sit down and write a summary of your medical concerns, take some time and edit it to be concise and factual, then print a copy to take with you.   Even if the new GP doesn't read it on the spot it will have helped you to organise your facts and put you in a good position to explain your concerns within the very short appointment time that is the norm these days.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Last appointment I learned my gp had left, so I asked for another woman doc, and got one. She immediately wanted to change my long established hospital consultant prescribed regime - why do they do that? I argued, she insisted, we settled on splitting the dosage in half, and now by evening I am bent like an 80 year old again. But I gave it a try. I suspect my willpower will run out and I will double the dose myself.

Quality of life, not quantity. I guess she will understand that reasoning when she passes three score years and ten. Be a while though.

I get zqwerty's point too. It is a relationship of trust. And I have very little of that on first or second or even third visit...

[zqwerty]

Very good idea to write out a list.

I take more time to diagnose the problems and analyze my response to repairing a 6 transistor radio than doctors do these days dealing with an infinitely more complex system, the human body.

The whole exercise has become a futile joke and it all has to be done in 10 minutes. I have actually taken a double appointment to explain my situation with the last doctor who just left.

This will be the 3rd doctor I have had to bring up to speed in the last two years.

Dealing with doctors, vets and hospitals when people you care about are dying has become a frustrating business, maybe it always was and I have just realized.

I guided Mum and Dad through a number of critical medical events in the private medical system and that wasn't much better than the public healthcare system, cost a fortune even with Insurance.

With what I have seen of what happened to mum and dad over the years (both ultimately died) and my own experiences with the T.U.R.P. operation and associated rigmarole surrounding that experience I have no faith in putting myself in their hands again especially with covid lurking in the badly run/cleaned hospitals.

[Olive]

I will share my example of the worst, most useless GP I have encountered.   

Many years ago I decided to quit smoking, and did so with the help of the Allan Carr book.   About six weeks later I had to see a GP for another reason, and told him that I had quit and that I was very pleased to have done so without too much misery.   His response was to offer me nicotine replacements, I said no thank you, I don't need them, he then said "Oh nobody succeeds in giving up the first time, you will fail time and again and you might well be dependent on patches or anti-psychotics for a long time".     He seemed affronted that I had succeeded without his help.

For the record, I have never smoked again.

[zqwerty]

Good for you not smoking after giving up for good.

Yes I have given up smoking so many times, this is my latest attempt.

I give up for years and don't really even crave one but after 3 or 4 years I have another one because I love the routine of rolling a cigarette and smoking it, so satisfying. Sometimes I have one then don't for months but I always seem to fall back in the end.

Luckily they are so expensive now that I can't afford them anymore.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Took me nine attempts. The factor that made my last attempt successful was that I did it with someone else, and together we both managed to break the habit. No patches, just cold turkey and each other.

My gp story involves the first damaged vertebrae, it was giving me trouble and I asked for better pain control. I wasn't really believed, but no mri or xrays. Then some months later that gp injured his back. Next time I saw him he was much more empathetic, lol.

I have often wondered if a bit of compulsory plaster cast wearing might help orthopedic surgeons lose a bit of that built in arrogance...

Probably not.

[zqwerty]

Yes the problem with younger doctors seems to be that since they haven't had much go wrong with them personally they don't seem to be able to empathize with older patients suffering the usual aches and pains of getting older.

I would have thought that since they surely are above average intelligence they would be able to empathize better but it just doesn't seem to be so in my experience.

I know young people seem to brush over a lot of life experience until it brings them up in their tracks but I guess that is just how things are.

[Lilith7]

I managed to give up about 10 or so years ago, found the Alan Carr book among a box of books put out on the berm down the street. I'd been thinking about giving up so decided it must be fate & took the book & read it.
Managed to eventually give up with help from an e cigarette from chemist, (similar to vape but looked like a cigarette) & found it difficult but was determined & learning that the evil bastard big tobbaco companies had known for years about the damage their product was doing but decided that the rest of us didn't need to know, was what got me through the hardest part; I was determined not to give those evil sods any more of my hard earned money.

I almost accidentally got my latest covid shot - was having a blood test & said to the nurse that I wasn't sure how long it was since I'd had my last covid. She looked it up,said I was due for one & would I like it now - so I did,done & dusted.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I must be just about due too... If they have a new version out since my last one!

[Olive]

I must be just about due too... If they have a new version out since my last one!

I finally got my latest booster (#8) a few days ago when the pharmacy's new stock arrived.   I asked if it covered the latest variant and was told that the vaccine was the same one as I was given in April, so I assume it doesn't specifically cover the new variant.   But I think it's important to keep up the six monthly regime.   Along with basic carefulness it's kept both of us safe so far.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I'm due for a script renewal next week, so I shall check. I like being a novid, long may it be so.

[C_T_Russell]

I made an appointment for two of us through the Book My Vaccine website.  Got the usual confirmations and a text reminder this morning.   We turned up at the venue to be told that they aren't vaccinating any more and the website had been notified but hadn't updated its information.   So we drove to the only other local provider, a pharmacy, to be told that they are out of stock, that they don't take bookings any more either, and that we should try them again in a few days' time to see if their new stock has arrived but it could be the week after.

So much for the productivity gains from sacking the back room staff who would have updated the web site:   this has used up at least an hour of two people's time.  

I am furious.   Covid is still real!

Of course covid is still real, but has it killed you yet?

[zqwerty]

It's killing 5 to 10 people every week in New Zealand and has been since the crisis was deemed to be over.

Mostly older people say over 60's and above.

Still thousands of non fatal cases every month, long covid is going to cause huge dementia problems in the future.

[Olive]

OliveI made an appointment for two of us through the Book My Vaccine website.  Got the usual confirmations and a text reminder this morning.   We turned up at the venue to be told that they aren't vaccinating any more and the website had been notified but hadn't updated its information.   So we drove to the only other local provider, a pharmacy, to be told that they are out of stock, that they don't take bookings any more either, and that we should try them again in a few days' time to see if their new stock has arrived but it could be the week after.

So much for the productivity gains from sacking the back room staff who would have updated the web site:   this has used up at least an hour of two people's time.  

I am furious.   Covid is still real!

Of course covid is still real, but has it killed you yet?

Covid hasn't killed me because I haven't been infected with it.   The reasons I haven't been infected are a combination of diligent masking and social distancing, regular vaccinations as recommended by expert immunologists, plus a healthy immune system.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

The Parkinsons Epidemic , the predictions are seriously scary. Not least for the world's financial markets. And the awful thing about Parkinsons is it doesn't kill, it doesn't cause dementia, it just ruins bodies and the way we use them. A living hell.

If I ever get covid - touch wood cross fingers and pray to all that is holy - it might be kinder to let it kill me. Seems to be the future is getting darker by the day.

We boomers were the luckiest last ones...