Hell, the US shortage is so bad my usual pharmacy told me they wouldn't be honoring my prescription, everyone I called refused to answer if they could and would usually just hang up on me, and my Dr refused to help find someone

Kinda don't blame the UK if it's anything like that there

[–] chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

In my experience, hospital pharmacies tend to be really good for filling out stimulant prescriptions. The shortage issue basically comes down to Schedule-II quotas and those are generally set per-pharmacy based on patient volume vs. controlled substance fulfillments.

This unfortunately means that low-volume convenience pharmacies tend to hit their quota maximum rather easily. Hospital pharmacies on the other hand tend to get fewer visits related to chronic conditions (e.g.: ADD/ADHD) and obviously have way more patient volume than the average Walgreens, so they're a lot more likely to vend to you without putting up a big fight.

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 9 months ago

Unfortunately my experience with my insurance provider (Kaiser) has been a refusal to respect my out of network diagnosis and insist that I get rediagnosed through them, a process which will take months as my GP refers me to a psych who are all booked for 3 months minimum

The other hospital in the area also refused to fill due to the shortage

I fucking hate this system and have had 3 doctors agree with me on that

I'd also like to point out that Kaiser cut me emergency supply of these same fucking meds at the order of that doctor after I was in the ER and didn't have them on me so like wtf

[–] yads@lemmy.ca 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

One of my kids just started on 2 different medications in Canada and we had no problem. Wouldn't have even thought there were shortages elsewhere

[–] riskable@programming.dev 26 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It's because of how your province negotiated the contract for the drugs. I guarantee that there's language in there that has penalties if there's supply problems.

Countries that don't negotiate drug prices/contracts are the ones that are suffering with shortages.

Insert Morpheus meme about people's worst fears about socialism being realized under capitalism.

[–] yads@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago

Thanks for the info. Sorry that's happening where you live

[–] sparkl_motion@beehaw.org 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I find this strange as well. While the producer of my meds has changed several times, I’ve never had to wait or go without at any point in time.

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 9 months ago

I had a 2 week period without a job and swapped insurance because of the new job offering it through a different service

Same Dr, same pharmacy, same pharmacist, yet the whole thing was treated like I was new at the pharmacy because of the insurance change

I personally think they were looking for any reason to drop people because they simply didn't have enough to supply all of us rather than just admit that

Dunno why so many other pharmacies were outright rude to me when I called but that's what a friend also experienced so my guess is stress over the situation or shitty callers who get angry