"Poor decision making"

The decision to move B12 injections from General Practitioners out to Vaccination Centres in Aberdeenshire is, in my opinion, an extremely ill-considered decisions. This comment is by no means a reflection on the staff within my GP surgery nor within the Vaccination Centres; rather it is very much focussed on the decisions made within NHS Grampian. The people making these decisions do not appear to understand, experience nor appreciate the regular inconvenience for service users.

I have B12 injections every twelve weeks, I have done for the past 10 years and I will do for life. I am reliant on B12 injections, my body can't produce B12, and this can have a significant impact on my work life balance.

In recent times the decision was made to take this regular injection away from the practice nurse at the GP surgery and instead to the nearest Vaccination Centre; but for me, that is a 10 mile journey that is reliant on my taking the car, whilst in comparison, my GP surgery is less than a 2 minute drive. There is no bus nor a train direct to the Vaccination Centre and the parking is either on a blind bend or within a private parking area that is reserved for residents. The fact that this venue became a Vaccination Centre (Stonehaven) is controversial in its own right (a elderly persons day care facility was closed).

There is also no flexibility on attendance for Vaccination Centres; whilst I work in the City of Aberdeen, I am not allowed to use any of the city Vaccination Centres, I can only attend the Vaccination Centre aligned to my GP surgery.  Additionally, I am only allowed to attend on one allotted day per week, which is a Tuesday. I have to rush the 17.3 miles from my work at 5pm to arrive for one of the latest appointments in the day, it can take me 50 plus minutes in rush hour traffic, and I then have the 10 mile journey home. I have asked if I could attend on my day off from work (a different week day) though this too has been refused because my GP surgery is only allotted for patients to attend on a Tuesday.

I am only allowed to order one ampule of B12 (Cyanocobalamin) at any one time, if I forget to take the ampule with me or forget to order from my GP on my repeat prescription in advance then I have to miss my appointment, this causes some anxiety! In latter times I was fully able to look after a box of ampules, the fact that I am now only allowed to order one at a time is in itself ridiculous, we are not speaking about a controlled drug here!

I am lucky that I am relatively young and able to travel, but I do feel for those who are much older, possibly more infirm or do not have access to transport; and it is this demographic that is statistically more likely to require this regular medication. Would it not have made more sense to move a service that is more required for a different demographic, perhaps for those who are younger and more likely to have access to a car and not in as regular need?

More importantly, why was there no consultation with service users? This is, in my opinion, an example of poor decision practices within NHS Grampian and yet another example of poor use of financial resources.