We’re really looking forward to being able to ask the specialist some questions. Except he’s not here. There is no specialist. We are met by a consultant pharmacist with a working interest in haematology. “This is how they do haematology now.” Without doctors??? Certainly without actual haematologists. We used to have 3 in ‘our’ unit, now there is 1 so he is supervising nurses and a pharmacist. Wow.
We did get some great advice on pain medication: codeine is fine and of course paracetamol but Ibrupofen is a no-no. Gel would be better than tablets because it’s topical but there is some absorption into the system and it’s impossible to know how much so avoid it – increased risk of bleeding etc.
We were also given some important advice on antibiotics. Husband had a chest infection and was prescribed Chlarithromycin by a GP. The pharmacist was most concerned and said that the system should have flagged that up as problematic because Chlarithromycin increases the levels of Ibrutinib in the blood so really should be avoided. It was prescribed by 2 GPs and 2 pharmacists failed to spot the problem too – another example of the system not communicating effectively. It just doesn’t flag up drug alerts. We were told to check for interactions ourselves eg on drugs.com and the pharmacist kindly said that we could text her on her work mobile.
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