WHAT YOU CAN DO IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS CONCERNING YOUR RIGHTS WITHIN THE NHS
If your Primary Care Trust (PCT) refuses to fund the medication that your consultant or doctor has prescribed for you, there may be various reasons for this.
One reason could be that the Chief Pharmacist of your local PCT has disallowed the prescription in which case you need to find out their name and challenge them directly about this.
The second could be that PCT is looking to cut corners on health care because they are in the red. Patient Advice Liaison Service should be helpful and refer you to (ICAS) Independent Advisory Complaints Service who will handle the full complaint, from writing the letter to going to meetings with you.
If the complaint isn't taken care of then, it should be referred to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee that should be meeting locally and in public in some instances. You can find out more from the local library or ring directory enquiries. The OSC can overturn a Primary Care Trust's decision.
You should get in contact with the local Patient and Public Involvement Forums (PPI) -there should be one in your area that meets in public. They are the lay people running investigations into the Health Service and have been appointed by parliament. PPI members can refer problems to the OSC.
Sometimes you have to find out the names of people and get their reasoning behind a decision.
WRITE TO YOUR LOCAL PRIMARY CARE TRUST IF IT REFUSES TO FUND THE MEDICATION YOUR DOCTOR HAS PRESCRIBED.
You should write formally and privately to your local Primary Care trust with full details of other PCT's and endocrinologists and general practitioners who you know are currently supplying and prescribing Armour with full names of PCT's and doctors, etc. You could ask questions from other members about their PCT's and doctors. Your letter could end with something like the following:
". . . The PCT and the doctors treating me are under a moral and legal obligation to prescribe the treatment that best fits the patient for a resolution of the symptoms. In answer to this moral and legal obligation both my GP and endocrinologist have complied with their hippocratic oath and want to prescribe XXXX, and my continuing health (just like other patients who are benefitting from this approach) depends entirely on access to this medication which gives me a high degree of symptom relief and well being.
In the circumstances, if due to your denial of treatment I have to continue taking unsuitable treatment with worsening symptoms attributed entirely to your denial of treatment causing me constructive bodily harm and disability, I will have no option but to seek a legal reversal of your decision plus compensation and costs. There are well-established legal precedents on reversal of denial of treatment decisions. This is something I would like to avoid, and I hope you will seriously reconsider your decision, your continued refusal will leave me no other option to ensure my continuing good health. . . "
Tell them you would like a reply in writing, (give them a SAE for this purpose) and that you wish for a response from them within say, one month.
Good luck.