• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Ran out of needles

matthewwallis

matthewwallis

Member
Messages
22
Location
Coventry
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi,

Doctors have managed to not bother sending my prescription to the chemist even though I ordered on Wednesday and went to collect today, Chemist said they would get it for tomorrow and I thought i had enough to get by until tomorrow. Turns out I dont have enough, is there any way of getting hold of any, thinking about going down to Boots but dont know if they will give me any?

Any help is appreciated
 
matthewwallis said:
Hi,

Doctors have managed to not bother sending my prescription to the chemist even though I ordered on Wednesday and went to collect today, Chemist said they would get it for tomorrow and I thought i had enough to get by until tomorrow. Turns out I dont have enough, is there any way of getting hold of any, thinking about going down to Boots but dont know if they will give me any?

Any help is appreciated
Click to expand...

Is boots the chemist who you put the prescription in with? They ought to be able to issue you with an emergency prescription while they are waiting on a signed prescription from the doctor and they'll do this if that's the chemist you usually get you stuff from and they know you.

If you can't get hold of me needles, you might just have to re-use a couple of needles. It's not ideal, but there are worse things.
 
matthewwallis said:
I use TriCare 5mm, but any 5mm ones would be okay
Click to expand...

Try Boots or if you still have clean needles eg attached to a pen and only used recently, you could re-use them. You're not supposed to but I've re-used pen needles a number of times as have many other Type 1s.

Never trust the doctor's to send things on time. I try to keep a few days spare of everything in case they mess up.
 
@matthewwallis . Many of us use needles more than once, it's not the way to go but I personally use the same needle more than once. If you've got an old needle from earlier it could be an option, a wipe with a sterile wipe as well if you're not sure.
Best advice other than that is always keep one pack of needles in stock, I always have 2 boxes of needles in stock as soon as one in use gets to last 10 or so I re order my next batch. This applies to all my medications.
Sorry can't help more, if all else fails go to A&E and see if they will give you an emergency prescription.


@catapillar @azure you both type to quick for me :)
 
You can buy needles over the counter from places like Boots or Lloyds pharmacy. You might need to show a prescription but I've never been asked. You can also get them on Amazon with Prime delivery. You'll have to pay for them of course, usually £15-20 for 100.

When my GP changed my prescription to a really nasty cheap needle that caused a lot of bruising etc. I bought some to tide me over until I could make my case to get them changed back and didn't have any problems buying them.
 
For future, why don't you order more than you need? I always like to have plenty of everything. That way if my prescription doesn't get submitted correctly, on time, etc - I still have about a month's worth of supplies to tie me over.

There shouldn't be a limit (theoretically) on how many needles, insulin, etc that you can order at once.
 
Back
Top