A three-week buffer, agreed with my GP

Started 13 November 2024 · 19 replies · 212 hearts · read 2.4k times

JuniperMachynlleth, UK · 13 November 2024

1.7 years ago

A three-week buffer, agreed with my GP Writing it down partly to work out what I actually think.

Money post. No apologies, this circle is for it.

The total across a year is a much bigger number than the monthly one and I have only just made myself look at it properly.

This is the boring administrative kind of problem, which I gather is the kind that gets solved if you know the right sequence.

My situation has changed and the arrangement I built no longer works, and I need to rebuild it before something runs out.

Since I have put a figure in the title I should stand behind it: three, exactly, and I checked before posting rather than after.

No judgement wanted and none expected in this circle, which is why I am asking here.

LlianCarmarthen, UK

My honest report is that this has been more work than it would have been elsewhere and has gone perfectly well.

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia

Stepping in to say that keeping every reference number is the single most repeated piece of advice in this circle's history, and it keeps being right.

18me too 9

LeniLeipzig, DE

What surprised me was how accommodating everybody was once I explained the actual distances involved.

BridieWexford, IE

Gently disagreeing with Leni, or rather adding the other half of it.

Something worth knowing: the postal service here is unreliable in winter, so anything time-sensitive is collected rather than sent.

ClémenceNantes, FR

Four hours to a prescriber each way means an appointment costs me a day, and every arrangement I have made is built around that fact.

13me too 4

NilsUppsala, SE

Picking up Clémence’s point rather than starting a new one.

Coming back at two years to say the system has held, that the buffer has been used twice, and that the telephone reviews were the thing that made it possible.

BessLouth, UK

This is the honest version, and the honest version is harder to write.

RowanInverness, UK

The one thing I would not compromise on is the buffer. Everything else in my arrangement has flexed and that has not.

IslaOban, UK

My experience of remote appointments has been better than in-person, mostly because they start on time and I am at home.

IlyaAlmaty, KZ

#10

Gently disagreeing with Rowan, or rather adding the other half of it.

Something that helped was asking for longer intervals between reviews given the travel, and it was agreed without argument.

Birdie BWhitstable, UK

#11

The ferry timetable is the calendar. Everything else in my planning bends around it and I have stopped fighting that.

TavitaApia, WS

#12

My prescriber has never seen me in person and it has worked perfectly well for two years, which surprised both of us.

SindriReykjavík, IS

#13

Nothing useful, just that I have been exactly here.

13me too 6

BoazHaarlem, NL

#14

Building on what Birdie B wrote rather than answering the original question.

I keep a written note of what to do if I cannot get somewhere, agreed with my prescriber in advance, and I have used it once.

BramGhent, BE

#15

Picking up Boaz’s point rather than starting a new one.

The isolation is its own thing. There is nobody within eighty miles doing this and this circle is my entire peer group.

MairéadMayo, IE

#16

What I got wrong early was assuming I could get something at short notice. I cannot, ever, and planning around that fixed everything.

DelythBala, UK

#17

Somebody in this circle who lives similarly gave me a practical list that saved me about six months of learning it the hard way.

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia

#18

Facilitator note: this community sells nothing, brokers nothing and takes nothing from anybody. That is why the numbers people quote here can be trusted.

15me too 9

SorrelMachynlleth, UK

#19

My bloods are done locally and sent on, which took some arranging and has saved me perhaps eight round trips.