"No medication"

Usually I only have positive things to say about the trust, but this time it's a little different. It is currently the early hours of the morning and I am out of bed wide awake again. I have been like this all week. I have Schizoaffective Disorder and when I don't sleep I usually end up with a high mood (which then comes crashing down to a low one).

Yesterday I phoned my CPN at Manor Road to see about getting some sleeping tablets. I only wanted them for a week or so to get back into a healthy sleeping routine. Shockingly I was told there was no medic at the clinic that day who could prescribe medication as the 2 Psychiatrists were both on annual leave. So, I phoned the County Crisis Team who told me they can't do anything as I am not in their care at the moment. As you probably know, it can be weeks before getting a GP appointment so I ruled that out myself.

How is it that at a Community Mental Health clinic no Dr was available? Surely there should always be a medic there to prescribe medication considering how many service users use the clinic. And surely the County Crisis Team would be helping more people avoid crisis if they could prescribe medication out of hours even if you are not under their team at that time?

I'm not sure if this is down to lack of staff or lack of communication between staff but I am not going to get any medication for my sleeping. I am very tired and I feel let down by the system for a second time in the last 3 weeks.