Hospice patients among latest denied prescription painkillers
http://www.wesh.com/news/hospice-patients-among-latest-denied-prescription-painkillers/34587018
Hospice patients are among the latest being denied prescription painkillers. It’s medication they need to spend their final days comfortably without pain.
Local pharmacist Linda Lizuka is being begged for help, but is unable to fill the need. She said she became a pharmacist so she could help people, but these days she’s seeing hospice and cancer patients being denied medicine to make their lives manageable.
“They’re being told ‘I don’t have it, I can’t get it, I can’t order it,’ or ‘I’m saving it for my regular patients.’ These are cancer patients,” said Lizuka, who owns the Hometown Old Country Pharmacy in Winter Park and is with the Florida Pharmacy Association.
She doesn’t dispense to the general public, but has taken on dozens of private patients who can’t get their legitimate medications filled elsewhere. She said she is currently filling pain prescriptions for 20 cancer patients and 25-30 hospice patients in Central Florida.
“I’ve even had two doctors contact me personally and ask me if I could please help their patients out,” Lizuka said.
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Lizuka works with VITAS, which offers hospice care and palliative services for patients who are dying. But according to Lizuka, hospice patients have become yet another unintended consequence in the pill mill crackdown. She said she gets at least two to three calls per week from VITAS nurses.
“Every day I get a new VITAS nurse calling me, saying, ‘Can you fill for this patient? They can’t find what they’re looking for. I think it’s a sad situation and we’re all in the health care profession and we’re caught between the proverbial rock and the hard place,” Lizuka explained.
All of this is expected to come up at the next Board of Pharmacy meeting on Monday in Deerfield Beach. WESH 2 News will be there.
WESH 2 News reached out to VITAS Healthcare to see how widespread the problem is for patients, but the hospice provider declined to comment on our story.
If you’re facing a prescription problem, email us at Investigates@WESH.com. We want to bring your story to state and federal officials.
Filed under: General Problems
Its true and Thank God for my Primary Care Physician, he keeps me as comfortable as he can.