Buddy story · Rural access
Four hours from a prescriber, both of us
Rowan is four hours from the nearest prescribing service. Col lives in a van. Between them they have solved most of the logistics problems this site knows about.
- Paired
- February 2025
- Cadence
- Fortnightly
- Status
- ongoing
Petra put them together and describes them privately as the rural-access research department. Cold chain in a van. What a pharmacy will and will not post. How to structure an appointment when the appointment costs you a day and a tank of fuel. Which questions have to be asked in the first three minutes because there will not be a second appointment for eleven weeks.
Half of travelling with a pen and a good part of storage and the cold chain came out of this correspondence and was then checked by people who actually know.
The honest part: Rowan had a fortnight without medication during a supply problem, because the four hours became a wall rather than an inconvenience, and describes that fortnight as the point at which she stopped being casual about ordering early.
Everything written about this assumes a chemist at the end of your road. Col was the first person who did not assume that.
A cool bag and a plan beats a fridge you do not have. But you need the plan before you need it, not on the day.