Posting for the first time after reading lots of helpful things on here and now having quite a specific situation that I’m hoping someone can offer me some advice on.
After 2 years of investigations, which started whilst I was an expat in Poland, I was finally diagnosed in March whilst living in Luxembourg. I have already started on Tecfidera. but in December I will be coming home to the UK and was wondering if anyone had some tips on the best way to try and just continue my treatment?
I have all my results, scans and what not and my neuro here said he will right me a report on the situation so far.
Do you think it is as simple as turning up to the GP and asking to be referred to a neurologist?
Also, is tecfidera available in the UK?
I should have enough medicine to keep me going for a few weeks but I am very keen to try and secure ongoing treatment, as I seem to be handling it quite well so far.
Sorry if this is a lot of waffle. Thanks for reading and I welcome your thoughts and advice.
Yes, still a British national so I’m guessing I can just turn up at the local surgery and my national insurance number will still be enough. I think I am still registered with the same doctor as when I left!
It’s a good plan to have all your current medical records and a report from your present neurologist. That will give you a head start on transferring over.
Then when you register with a GP in the U.K., you’ll need to get an urgent appointment with a neurologist, preferably one who specialises in MS so they can prescribe your Tecfidera. You may have to do a bit of research on the hospital where you’ll be living to get the name of the right person to be referred to. Floopy is right, only a neurologist can prescribe disease modifying drugs. And they probably have to be MS specialists.
It may take some time to get an appointment with a GP, then a neurologist, then get your prescription sorted out, so you should see if you can get a few months worth of Tecfidera to cover for the change in doctors.
I’ve seen that my GP does telephone appointments. It’s a long shot but I’m wondering if I can get the ball rolling already. I’m not 100% hopeful that he’ll make a decision over the phone but maybe I can already get the referral to the neurologist on the go, before I even move back. I’m assuming that the whole process will take a while.
This post was a while ago but I thought I’d put the outcome here in case it is helpful for someone else.
I booked the telephone appointment to explain the story to my GP - I sent an email with all my medical documents. Then I came back to the UK and visited my GP in person, provided all physical documentation and asked to continue my medication. When trying to prescribe, he was referred to the nearest neurologist specializing in MS.
I was contacted by the MS team and I got an urgent appointment with the neurologist. I went to the appointment, he gave me a general once over and I was prescribed the drugs and put under the care of the team. No MRIs or spinal taps redone, just a physical examination and a chat. The experience was much less painful than I had been prepared for - partially because of a great GP, partially because of a great MS team in Southampton and I like to think partly down to my neurotic obsession with keeping all medical records and documents since the very first time I went to the doctor with the symptoms that turned out to be MS.