This first story is sad on many fronts… apparently this pt was going to a independent “Good Neighbor Pharmacy” which is a franchise and the Pharmacist/owner died and his non-pharmacist wife hired a Pharmacist that may have come from one of those chains who don’t care if C-II are filled or not.. I suspect that this is a “young” Pharmacist because this particular pt’s religion is very important to him and dresses accordingly… so whether this was part of the decision to deny or not… This Pharmacist may have bitten off more than he can chew.. This pt has promised to “keep me in the loop” as this progresses.. more to follow…
I have been taking narcotics for almost 20 years for a severe liver and pain condition. I used to take a lot more I have been cutting down and going to the same pharmacy for the whole time. My old pharmacist passed away. The new guy is refusing to fill my triplicate because he says it’s alot, ( acting like a doctor?) and not from a pain management specialist, but a pulmonary specialist. They have been filling for years. And I believe he has been filling it for the last few months. From the same doctor. Given what I have researched and that I am disabled he is violating my civil rights not only disability discrimination but possibly religious as every time I have dropped off my prescription I was alone. The day of the refusal I was accompanied by my daughters who choose to wear the Islamic head scarf, hijab. I will be filing complaints with every agency I can. I would like to avoid this as I hope he will reconsider, but if I have to what advice can you give for filing or trying to get the pharmacist to remember his first oath ?
This is from a Pharmacist friend in CA that is privy to this situation… this is another story that I will be following… all it is going to take is a couple of these types of cases to get pt friendly settlements and the rules of the game will change… 🙂
I have a member w/this issue now..has hired a lawyer….same issue….want to take license & close him down in CALIF….
Filed under: General Problems
While any and all discrimination is bad, discrimination based on other factors such as religious beliefs or ethnicity along with the medical issues might be our path to the brass ring. It’s plainly obvious that our disabilities alone will never get us through the door to redemption, but because pain never is discriminate but some pharmacists, doctors and government agencies tend to be, our PEERS IN PAIN, our brothers and sisters of color or different religious beliefs just might be once again on the front lines of yet another Civil Rights battle. The single most important thing that we all must remember is that we can not fall into that same category and discriminate against others for anything at all and that includes those who are addicted because our compassion can be our biggest strength.
As a middle aged white man who suffers on a daily basis from a constant crippling pain throughout my entire body, even with the use of opiates, I couldn’t imagine even going a week without my meds. I’ve only ever experienced one act of discrimination against myself in a medical facility in which I wasn’t actually denied treatment at an emergency room, I was made to wait for almost 6 hours and never did get to see a doctor at that hospital. I finally got so upset that I had my wife help me to the car and take me to another hospital where they immediately examined me and found out that I slipped and disk. Of course this was long before I even knew that any of this bull crap was going on. but I have bared wittiness to others who have been denied treatment because of general beliefs that all pain sufferers using opiates are nothing but drug seeking addicts. As a matter of fact just over a year ago one of my best friends sister was sent away twice in a single week from an emergency room without being properly examined and 7 days after her initial trip to the ER she was dead from multiple strokes. I really can’t go into very many more details because this suit is still going on but I can say that 2 ER doctors and one nurse were administratively released from their positions.