A peer support community, independent and not for sale. Since February 2024.

GLP CircleA peer support community

Canada

A pharmacist who spent forty minutes with me

Started 7 April 2026 · 12 replies · 88 hearts · read 1.9k times

OrphBath, UK · 7 April 2026
3 months ago

A pharmacist who spent forty minutes with me — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

Anyone else here in my part of the world? I would like to compare notes.

The advice I have been given locally contradicts what I have read here, and I would like to know which is out of date.

I am some distance from anywhere and every arrangement I have made is shaped by that, and most of what is written assumes otherwise.

The pathway where I am appears to be different from every account I have read, and I would like to know whether that is the area or me.

To be precise about it, since I have put it in the title: forty minutes. I counted rather than guessed, because a guess would have been kinder to me.

Any local detail gratefully received, however small. The small things are what nobody writes down.

29

NadjaBelgrade, RS
#1

Somebody in this circle in my province walked me through the exact sequence of forms and saved me about three months.

3

MapleToronto, CA
#2

My honest experience is that this has been an administrative problem far more than a clinical one.

8

XanBerlin, DE
#3

Not a solution, just company.

7

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada
#4

Facilitator note: supply situations change and this thread is dated. I am leaving it open so it can be updated rather than replaced.

11me too 5

OrvalWinnipeg, CA
#5

My prescriber wrote a supporting note that addressed the plan's criteria point by point, and that is what got the approval.

9

IvorLlanelli, UK
#6

What surprised me was how much variation there is between pharmacies on price, even with coverage, and it was worth one afternoon to check.

8

TamsinRedruth, UK
#7

The supply has been reliable where I am, and my pharmacy has told me in advance the two times it was going to be tight.

10me too 9

KaiVancouver, CA
#8

Orval — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

Something practical: I have the plan's reference number and the pharmacy's direct line saved, because the general line takes forty minutes.

4

MargueriteQuebec City, CA
#9

I moved provinces and had to rebuild the coverage arrangement entirely, which took about four months.

4me too 1

BassCoventry, UK
#10

Something worth knowing: my province's formulary is published and searchable, and reading it answered questions nobody would answer on the phone.

6

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada
#11

Stepping in to say that four systems' worth of answers is four times as much reading as anybody needs. If one of them applies where you live, that is yours; the rest are interesting rather than useful.

15

OrrinGlasgow, UK
#12

Bass, thank you for that. It gives me somewhere to start from.

Something I got right was keeping every receipt, because the annual claim needed all of them and I nearly threw them out.

3