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Letters to the Editor
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Oxygen service
Unsatisfied patients
From Mrs S. Glass, MRPharmS, and Mr D. Taylor, MRPharmS
Your news item read “New
oxygen suppliers may not meet 1 August deadline” (PJ, 15 July, p66) and they have not. This means that
they are now seven months behind schedule, actually 10 months if anyone
can remember as far back as the first deadline in 2005. This would be
bad enough if the service when, or if, it finally arrives is good or
even passable.
We wrote to you in
March (PJ, 11 March, p292) expressing disquiet about
the situation and a reference to oxygen concentrators was edited out
of the letter on the grounds that it was “not relevant to the main
point”. It has become increasingly relevant to many of our former
oxygen patients; they have been issued with a concentrator whether they
like it or not. Is this “more modern, up-to-date equipment than
you get from a pharmacy”as touted in an introductory letter to
patients? The criterion for issue has been reduced and, as we suspected,
hence the reference in March, Air Products is issuing concentrators to
as many patients as possible. This means that only one or two service
visits a year are needed, rather than a regular supply of cylinders.
Concentrators are noisy. This has an impact if oxygen is required through
the night and they cannot be put in a car for occasional trips. Most
importantly they run on electricity paid for by the patient and not the
NHS.
We know of at least two patients on our list who have resisted the issue
of a concentrator but who have then had a less than ideal service for
cylinder supply.
We are being urged to carry out customer satisfaction surveys and we
urge primary care trusts and organisations to carry out a survey among
oxygen patients and act on the results. Without exception, our patients
who have rung to request a final uplift of cylinders because they are
now in the hands of Air Products, have expressed a desire to remain with
the status quo.
Give oxygen service back to pharmacies. This was always one Government
initiative too far and it is still not too late for a u-turn.
Sheila Glass
Denis Taylor
Penhill Pharmacy
Swindon, Wiltshire
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal