Terminal patient had a week’s wait for medication
A woman has criticised the way her doctors surgery treated her terminally ill husband.
Debra Weeden says she was absolutely disgusted after her husband Michael had to wait a week for some vital medication to be dispensed.
The pair, who have lived in Park Wood, Maidstone, for six years, are patients at the Wallis Avenue Surgery, round the corner from their home.
“Michael has been a patient with Heart of Kent Hospice for around a month,” Mrs Weeden, 53, said. “But when he was discharged it took a week to get the medication he needed. Every time I rang the chemist I was told the prescription wasn’t ready because it hadn’t been sent from the surgery.
“You can’t play with people’s lives like this. It’s just not acceptable.”
Mr Weeden, 62, was first diagnosed with skin cancer in 2014, but the disease has now spread around his body, including his brain.
His condition has since deteriorated and he has been readmitted to Aylesford’s Heart of Kent Hospice.
While at home, he was visited by a community nurse specialist from the hospice, but such nurses cannot prescribe medication. It has to be done by a GP.
The hospice’s community nursing team provides advice and support to 535 patients in the local area, but they remain under the care of their GP.
A spokesman for the hospice said: “When a change in medication is required, we liaise with the appropriate local GPs and district nursing teams to co-ordinate this, but we have no involvement with dispensing timeframes. We are however continuing to support Mr Weeden.”
But his wife says this has proved to be a problem.
She said: “He’s went down to the surgery by himself before for an appointment and was asked if the matter was urgent.
“Well of course it’s urgent, he’s dying.
“The truth is the surgery is over-subscribed, but why should we have to change our doctors? All we are asking is that the surgery is brought up to standard.”
Wallis Avenue Surgery, which has one full-time doctor and 3,579 patients, did not respond when asked for a comment.