My delivery is due next Monday.

Last Monday I hadn't heard anything so I decided to ring them up. I have two different numbers, one for MTX and another for Enbrel. I tried both numbers several times and each time it was engaged. Decided to wait till later in the day thinking that Monday mornings could be busy. I tried again late afternoon. Kept ringing both numbers and kept getting the engaged tone. I finally got through and was put on hold. I kept getting the recorded message, I get free 0845 numbers with my phone package, well free for the first hour so I put the phone on speaker and waited. Finally after 50 minutes the recorded message stopped and I heard a ringing tone. Success at last I thought....No, I was then cut off. Not a happy bunny I can tell you

The following morning I sat with phone in hand and waited till it was 8am and phoned again. This time I did manage to get to speak to someone very quickly. I did ask what was the problem the day before and was told that Mondays were always busy and their web page had crashed and lots of people were trying to phone. The drugs are being delivered next Monday.

When I had my assessment a few weeks ago the nurse told me that she was putting together a letter of complaint.

It's not really good enough when they are dealing with drugs that mean so much to peoples health.

Paula

Well the delivery arrived during the time slot I had been given.

She arrived at my door with 5 boxes piled up in her arms. The MTX normally arrives in a box with anything else I may of ordered....sharps...cotton wool buds. I had ordered 2 pairs of gloves so I did assume that these would be in with my MTX. She put them on the floor in my hall and I questioned why I had five boxes. She gave me the one on the top that had MTX wrote on it, she gave me another one with Enbrel in (that normally is in a plastic bag) and the one that said it had gloves in.

The other two boxes had MTX on the side and gloves. She was about to take these boxes back with her, but I asked if she would wait a minute while I checked the boxes she was leaving with me. The box marked MTX had one injection in, the Enbrel box was correct and the box with the gloves in did not have two pairs in but two boxes in. She then checked the other two boxes. One had the remaining 7 injections in the other had two more boxes of gloves in!!

It's a good job I checked the delivery or I would of been left with only one MTX injection. I said to her that she must be getting lots of hassle of people and at the moment adding that Health Care at Home could not organise a pee up in a brewery. She replied (not in a nasty way),.....well at least you've got your drugs, lots of people aren't getting theirs.

She then asked if I wanted to keep the four boxes of gloves because they would only get binned if she took them back......What a cost to the NHS.

The thing I can't understand about the gloves is surely someone somewhere should have questioned why one patient need four boxes!!

These people deliver drugs to people who have cancer, who have had organ transplants, surely they can't be going through the same as us? If we miss a dose of drugs, alright we may suffer, but it is not life threatening. It's really not good enough is it?

I don't know if I should email my specialist nurse to tell her what happens.

Paula x
P.S. Anyone want to buy some gloves.......I've got some going cheap.

Hi Paula,

There are indeed cancer patients going through the same delivery problems that we are. I found this out this morning - my promised delivery today was cancelled,

Due to an "error in the system," so I complained. After lengthy battle I was told someone would ring me back. Meanwhile, I phoned NRAS, who promised to take action, & I rang my rheumy nurse.It was the rheumy nurse who told me that cancer patients are caught up in this too. Anyway, my hospital are chasing thins up, and h@h have now phoned to say they are sending my humira by courier, and they hope it will be here by late tonight!

It's hopeless. This is happening every time, and both the hospital & NRAS are inundated with complaints, and are having to spend time following them up. We live in Durham, the humira is coming from Staffordshire - what will that be costing? It's absolutely insane.

My hospital have told me they are logging every complaint, so to keep on letting them know when there's a problem and they will do the chasing up, rather than me sit for ages on the end of a phone.

I think it will be a late night for me tonight.

Kathleen x

can't believe i'm reading all this,

nothing else to say due to my recent experiences except the last one,

over and out!

Suzanne

as said in other thread,

can't say this re-assure's me at all,

never got a reply from my email just after Christmas.

Suzanne

They sent a letter out to us (well I received one) December/January. In that letter they apologised for the situation and then said that things would improve. I think they put up a statement about a month again, still stating the same and here we are with more or less the same statement being put out......we wait for the next one.

As for emailing them, there is lots of threads on the Arthritis Care forum and the Healthunlocked and lots of people are reporting that they are not responding to emails!! I like the title of one thread on the Arthritis Care forum.....Health Care NOT at Home.

I belong to a hospital patient group for the Rheumatology Department and I can't attend the next meeting. I telephoned the lady who organises it and asked her to raise it at the meeting. She is very much involved with the hospital and is seeing one of the Big Wigs on Wednesday and she is going to raise the issue with him.

I did yesterday speak to my next door but one neighbour who gets his drugs delivered by them. He had a heart and kidney transplant several years ago and the deliver his anti rejection drugs, I am happy to report that he has had no problems whatsoever.

Paula x

What do I have to do to join your club?
Sorry but I'm still getting Enbrel at the right time via email communication.
It comes from the Swanley depot. Does that make a difference ??
Anne

Aren't you tempting fate?

Update on Healthcare at Home issues.

NRAS has been made aware of the many issues that patients have been experiencing recently with their Healthcare at Home deliveries. As a way of better communicating with patients the most up to date information, Healthcare at Home have launched a new website specifically to address the most frequently asked questions etc. Here is the link to the new website http://www.hahsupport.co.uk

Kind regards
Emma

Another statement but this time from Abbvie (who supply Humira) regarding Healthcare at Home:

http://nras.org.uk/news_...dalimumab_patients.aspx

Kind regards
Emma