The Pharmac Blues

As of the 1st of April,(yeah I know, April Fool, hahahahahaa.... cue hysterical laughter) our beloved Pharmac, arbiter of which pills & potions us lowly peasants are allowed to have dispensed to us either free or at a reduced rate made some quite sweeping changes. It would appear that they have finally woken up to the fact that pharmaceutical companies have been creaming it somewhat at their, (Pharmac's) expense. So as of the 1st of April things have changed. Substantial amounts of drugs have come off the free list or had their subsidy greatly reduced. So are we going to see a decline in the annual dividends paid to the shareholders of the pharmaceutical companies ? Ooohhh nooo dear readers. Guess who is paying ? us poor taxpayers, beneficiaries, old age pensioners & anyone unfortunate to be ill.

One of the things to be affected is Jude's Fortisip. The subsidy is being reduced to the point where the end user will be paying $1.00 per 200 ml bottle. Doesn't sound like much, but thats $10.00 a litre , more than milk & Jude is totally dependent on the stuff put through a PEG tube. We were very lucky. We have an excellent relationship with our pharmacist, so we knew well in advance what was going to happen & had plenty of time to investigate alternatives, which we did. It took not inconsiderable time. Not only on my behalf, but also our pharmacist & our doctor, sourcing acceptable alternatives that were covered still. We got there, to the point where we were initiating moves to get our authority changed. That in itself was going to be a mission as Pharmac's computer in Wanganui is conveniently on the sick list & all new applications have to be handwritten, submitted by fax & can take anything up to 2 weeks to approve. Oh what Fun.

Jude has been having problems with an infection in her stoma, which has been treated with ointments & antibiotics, but we have stopped the anti bi's as they are giving her the runs. Anyway, Sheena, our favorite District Health Nurse, has also been treating it with silver nitrate, probably the most effective of anything. She has also solved our hassles with Fortisip. She has been talking to our hospital dietician, a nice young chap, who informed her that a new directive has been issued stating that anyone who is totally dependent on Fortisip via a PEG for sustanance can, wait for it, still get it on full subsidy. All that has to happen is your GP has to write either "Prescribed condition" or "Bolus fed through a feeding tube" on the script. Talk about round & round in circles of diminishing propensity until you vanish in a puff of smoke up your own fundamental orifice, but alls well that ends well I guess.

Now in other news......

Jude's new toy arrived today. A brand spanking new 16 gig ipad with wifi thats never been booted up. That in itself constituted a problem as we had no instruction book either & Apple are somewhat close chested about promulgating such things on line. Anyway, a call to our local computer store, (Computer Geeks, very helpful folk) got things underway. That & the nice lady from WheelChair Solutions showing me how to turn it on & off got me started. My God, what a process. Lets just say it involves an early start, a packed picnic lunch, a computer, a credit card & an incredible amount of patience.

Anyway, after a few false starts, forgotten passwords & considerable bad language, I was able to present Jude with her new voice. She now has an ipad loaded with a programme called Proloquo, which effectively gives her a voice to talk to people with again. I get the satisfaction of a job well done & seeing the look of happiness on my darling's face. Money can't buy that.