Derek Flint Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 10 hours ago, Mercenary said: Can generally be spotted driving off into the 'sunset' in their Porsche paid for with the generous public purse funded pension. Jealous much? I actually first suggested it around 1992 in Lancs Police. I reckoned we could have put 300 cops back on the streets.. 10 hours ago, Banker said: Like Derek and Gary Roberts you mean! Gary has never had any taste in cars. Peak motor was a lime green C3 Me on the other hand... Thanks for your contribution. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarndyce Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 44 minutes ago, Blade Runner said: Stopping Paracetamol on a script will cost the government money, not save it. If they cant buy it in bulk for less than 50p a packet and charge, what £3.75 or something, whatever a Manx script is? They should be making a good profit on prescribing it You might be confusing “prescribe” with “supply” - IOMG don’t dispense the prescription, chemist shop businesses do that. So where does the government’s profit come from? Come to think of it - the GP surgeries providing the prescriptions are also private businesses, contracted to DHSC/MC - not actually part of IOMG. Or have I misread what you’re saying? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cissolt Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 1 hour ago, Blade Runner said: Stopping Paracetamol on a script will cost the government money, not save it. If they cant buy it in bulk for less than 50p a packet and charge, what £3.75 or something, whatever a Manx script is? They should be making a good profit on prescribing it Surely the DHSC would have to provide a cost savings analysis on a policy change of this size? The idea is sound if the data and evidence prove it to be effective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbie Bobster Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 1 hour ago, Derek Flint said: I love what you've done with your new residence! Plenty of fleet parking also. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTF Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 2 hours ago, Andy Onchan said: Are you a consultant? throw away 6 letters and he is. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrighty Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 9 hours ago, Roger Mexico said: You're only saying that because you've got four words in your job title. But your colleague the "Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Hips Knees" will have to go. Which is a pity as it's probably the only one the old ladies would understand. Good job you're not on the panel. You missed the word 'or' - if those with 5 or more words in their job titles can manage to explain to the old ladies then they'd be fine. I think my title only has 3 words - in my new world order I'd be asking for a pay rise because of that 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrighty Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 2 hours ago, Andy Onchan said: Are you a consultant? 11 minutes ago, WTF said: throw away 6 letters and he is. For the cruciverbalists how about... Banker, a confused consultant without talons? (4) 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.K. Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 12 minutes ago, wrighty said: Good job you're not on the panel. You missed the word 'or' - if those with 5 or more words in their job titles can manage to explain to the old ladies then they'd be fine. I think my title only has 3 words - in my new world order I'd be asking for a pay rise because of that The start point of any rightsizing exercise is to drill down through an organisation to find out who is doing what and why? Then you follow their outputs up the management chain, or in the case of Public Service wading up through their over-heavy, slow, cumbersome, out-moded pyramid structure, to ascertain if the outputs are a must have or not as the case may be. I don't see an "old lady panel" cutting it really... Incidentally when the time came for me to order up another batch of business cards I had been in the organisation a while and knew a lot of customers personally. So I made the decision not to include a job title on the new batch. The message was clear "I don't do bullshit" and was actually appreciated by the customer base. Mind you, I'm not sure it would work for everyone... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrighty Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 28 minutes ago, P.K. said: I don't see an "old lady panel" cutting it really... It was a joke, and not even mine. I'm pretty sure I heard it on one of the 6.30pm Radio 4 slots once. And the job titles idea too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Mexico Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 3 hours ago, Blade Runner said: Stopping Paracetamol on a script will cost the government money, not save it. If they cant buy it in bulk for less than 50p a packet and charge, what £3.75 or something, whatever a Manx script is? They should be making a good profit on prescribing it They have to pay the pharmacist for dispensing it and in reality anyone getting such a prescription would be doing so in bulk or they'd need to be back in a few days. But the likelihood is more that anyone affected by this would be on free prescriptions anyway. And that's something that really hasn't been discussed. While some of those benefiting from the free prescription of over-the-counter medication may be wealthy pensioners (though in my my experience most will be happy to pay) some may be genuinely badly-off (possibly because all their money goes in rent to wealthy pensioners). And impoverished single mother needing vitamin supplements and/or her child requiring anti-histamines for bad hay fever may end up having to pay out money they don't have. There does seem to be an exception for chronic conditions, but that could be the next thing to go and chronic conditions start out as acute. And doctors may want to control which OTC medicines are being used in terms of dosage etc, which they can only do through prescription. I don't really think this is a big issue, financially or administratively, and I can't see why the decisions can't be left in the hands of the doctors who know their patients (I suspect most of us have had doctors suggest OTC stuff to buy in the past). As with so much that comes out of the government and its 'agencies' this seems to be more about making gestures about saving money and implying everything is the public's fault, rather than actually saving money or improving services. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarley Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 17 hours ago, quilp said: Branded Solpadeine 'Max' contains 12.8mg of codeine in a single tablet and an Ibuprofen prep with around the same (13.6mg?). The effervescent version of 'Max' also contains 30mg of caffeine (2 tablets being slightly stronger than the average heaped spoon of Nescafé). People can experience a pleasant little 'lift', a buzz, and overtime, potentially becoming quietly addicted. Like someone very close to me, in fact. Also worked with a fella who would take up to 10 doses of the 30/500's a day for that very reason and made no bones of it. The paracetamol at those levels would surely be detrimental to one's liver, possibly deadly to some people but his body had adjusted to it over the years. Ridiculous amount of sodium in the effervescent tablets too. Loads of people doing it for the wrong reasons, impervious to the obvious warnings and risk of abuse. Prime example of wilful ignorance. Paracetamol helps the body absorb codeine so you get more bang for your codeine buck, so to speak. That's the main reason they combine it; deterring overuse is just a bonus. I forget the exact chemistry, but it was all explained to me in detail by my consultant in Liverpool, who I've recently mentioned in another thread is a pharmacologist, amongst other things. He doesn't half go on about meds and body chemistry and absorption rates, given the chance. Paracetamol evidently boosts a few meds, mainly pain-relief types IIRC, so I've renamed it paraCHEATamol. 😎 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Ha, yes. One consultant I had dealings with had a thing for "poor metabolisers." Nowt wrong with that, at least he took great care in adjusting the meds he was prescribing to suit his patients. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrighty Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 16 minutes ago, quilp said: Ha, yes. One consultant I had dealings with had a thing for "poor metabolisers." Nowt wrong with that, at least he took great care in adjusting the meds he was prescribing to suit his patients. “Good metabolisers” could be a euphemism for alcoholics. Regular boozers often need more anaesthetic induction agents than average, for example. Until the induction of liver enzymes goes too far of course… 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarley Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 5 minutes ago, quilp said: Ha, yes. One consultant I had dealings with had a thing for "poor metabolisers." Nowt wrong with that, at least he took great care in adjusting the meds he was prescribing to suit his patients. Yes. It's amazing the different things that can alter the absorption rate of various meds. Grapefruit is somewhat well-known for interfering with some meds, for instance. Calcium (such as in antacids) is another. I can't take any "daily multi" type supplement that includes any mineral within twelve hours one of my meds, as any mineral can decrease the absorption rate by more than half, which would quite frankly be a disaster as it would lead to drug-resistance, possibly to a whole class of meds. The mechanism behind this was also explained to me in explicit detail. It was fascinating; shame I can't recall most of it. 😂 It's great having a doc who really knows his stuff and pays close attention to detail. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 3 minutes ago, Zarley said: Yes. It's amazing the different things that can alter the absorption rate of various meds. Grapefruit is somewhat well-known for interfering with some meds, for instance. Calcium (such as in antacids) is another. Vitamin C increases the speed of Iron absorption (or vice versa). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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