Amidose Saline

[Clarisa]

I was extremely annoyed when I went to Moorfields yesterday and was told that I could only buy Amidose if I had an appointment.
I when to Moorfields last week friday but because it was outside of surgery hours I was told that I need to get a prescription from the consultant, so obviously I was given the wrong information.
I saw the consultant nearly 6 months ago and he gave me 3 months worth of Amidose, because I had some already it lasted a while. Now that I have run out I have to send a cheque to Bedfordshire to get some, how ridiculous is that?

[Susan Mason]

Hi Clarisa

This seems to be another example of just how different all the hospital seem to be.

I can't get saline from my hospital. I have to get it prescribed by my GP and then it is supplied by my local chemist who took several visits to get used to me wanting it and in such amounts and at that it is only Normasol that I can get no one seems to be aware about Amidose up north here. Maybe this is due to the fact that when I first got my sclerals back in May 2003 there seemed to be a shortage of it.

What puzzles me is when it is so essential to us why we all seem to have these little hiccups with obtaining it, after all without it we don't see so well if at all.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

best wishes

Susan

PS if it helps in the short term I could send you some Normasol.

[jayuk]

Clarisa

This must be something new...as I have gone on numerous occasions to the Pharmacy there beg of last year and showed them my Hospital card and quoted my Hospital Number and had no issues.

The one time I DID have issues, I pointed out that it was Saline Solution; and Im hardly going to O'D on it.......however I WONT be able to see if I cant put the saline in my Lens and put that in my eye

J

[rosemary johnson]

This isn't just amidose - it now seems to be a general rule that you can't have a prescription to get *anything* from Moorfields pharmacy unless you have an appointment.
Mind, i've had three different people in Pharmacy there tell me fdifferent things and deny the others could possibly have said what they did - excuse me, are you calling me a liar????! - but that's another story.

This is of course ridiculous - because if youa re going to collect new lenses, this doesn't count as an "apointment" as you are just going to get the things. But you can't use them without the solutions, so you have the choice of a) getting a stockpile of solutions at your previous appointment, ready for when the lenses arrive, and if it takes 7 months for the lenses to turn up, as it did my mine recently (!) the fluids may have gone out of date, or b) you get the lenses and then sit on them until your next scheduled appointment when you can get the fluids, in which time you aren't getting the benefit of the lenses and aren't getting the ability to work - or just palin live! - or c) refuse to collect any lenses without having an official appointment.
If it is a new lenses of the same type as before you are getting, the problem isn't so severe, because you can just go on using the same fluids but with the new lens. But if it is a different type of lens, and you don't even know what to look for, or what the chemical behind the brand name (or vice versa) is, and your local chemists shop says they've never heard of the new stuff, you're rather stumped.

SOmeone in pharmacy told me the problem was the amount of space they had, and they just didn'thave room to keep supplies for people without appointments, or more than one month's supply of certain items - though whether a second person would say the same thing, or tell my no-one here would possibly ever have said that, who knows?

Rosemary