MUR pressure

[blogger]

Hello

i have wrote this

www.mur-the-stress.blogspot.com

Have a read, I'm sure there are others who may feel the same.

Thanks for reading

[GAZ]

Blimey mate!!!!!

[minisini]

Holy Moly! Its ok, its ok, its ok.....

[Prawnlaksa]

Feel the same way but unfortunately things will only be more "challenging" after 1/10/09. Only option is to migrate I think.

[GAZ]

I.M.H.O...the D.O.H/PSNC et al missed a trick when they introduced MUR'S - what's the point of doing an mur without asking about quality/value? If as a pharmacist you feel you are been put under pressure to do the holy grail of "2 a day"/400 a year" then the obvious response is for the pharmacist to do the "easy patient's" ...mr x on levothyroxine & paracetamol PRN OR mrs y who's on bendro's, ramipril & paracetamol (and has been for years) - you can clinically justify both of these patients for MUR (eg mr x may have been taking his levothyroxine at night & been getting sleep disturbance?)..but what about all those patient's on 10+ meds? How many of the patient's are having an MUR or been referred for an MUR? In the numbers driven world of the multiples who is saying to their managers "you know what, lets focus on diabetic patients, post heart attack patients etc"...?? What about all the housebound patient's?
Just to get some debate going....I think there should be 3 different fee structures, say £10-£15 for an MUR for patient's on 3 or less items, £20-£25 4-7 items & £30-£35 for 8+ items with an additional allowance for (authorised by PCT) home visit MURs of £15?
From my personal experience some of my more worthwhile MURs have been done in patient's homes (patient/carer/PCT approval first!!!)...but these have been done "out of hours" & tend to take a little longer than those done in the pharmacy!!

[womble]

Hi totally agree with you - I obviously am employed by the same company you are!!
However I believe that with England currently being basically bankrupt with £2 or £3 trillion of debt, the next government will (hopefully) have the wisdom and guts to make massive state spending cuts and MURs in their current form will be one of those cuts!

Otherwise I might just migrate back to the sunny South Pacific shaking my head :-)

[GAZ]

Hi totally agree with you - I obviously am employed by the same company you are!!
However I believe that with England currently being basically bankrupt with £2 or £3 trillion of debt, the next government will (hopefully) have the wisdom and guts to make massive state spending cuts and MURs in their current form will be one of those cuts!

Otherwise I might just migrate back to the sunny South Pacific shaking my head :-)

hi womble, i'm actually a self-employed locum

[womble]

hi womble, i'm actually a self-employed locum

Sorry Gaz, I actually meant the same company as 'Blogger'

Clever cookie you being a self-employed locum -I think I might be going down that line soon too!

[GAZ]

Sorry Gaz, I actually meant the same company as 'Blogger'

Clever cookie you being a self-employed locum -I think I might be going down that line soon too!

self-employment has it's positives & negatives - with more newly qualified pharmacist's coming on to the register some of the companies may feel inclined to use this to drive locum rates down in some areas of the UK and some may link your hourly rate of pay to the number of MUR's you can do in your shift?

[blogger]

I am alright now hooooonest. *Twitches.

As a locum, I could envisage conducting MURs all day, as I am not responsible for the store per say- the manager or senior dispenser can deal with rowdy impatient patients, the phone for the pharmacist, etc!

I am paid the same, and if it means sitting down on the job all day in the consultation room, well that's a bonus too. To hell with checking, if MURs is all they want, that's what they'll get. And no, you cannot bring items to check whilst I'm in there! Although I have yet to hear a locum do this - perhaps I could be the first.

Leaving the company is not a likely decision I would take, the company was my soul, but it turned round and bit me like a rabid dog.

Now back to reality. In the current situation, I cannot do MURs all day. I am the pharmacist in charge, all the regulars know me, they expect an exemplary level of service that comes with a pharmacy with a regular staffing. With the way things are going, it would be a shame to leave that all behind, but if I must, I must.