To think Pharmacies shouldn't shut for lunch anymore

The pharmacist at our local boots took early retirement just before Christmas and they’ve not been able to replace her so it’s been floating cover since. They called me a couple of Fridays ago because they know i usually pick up my mum’s meds on a Saturday - they hadn’t been able to get someone for the Saturday shift so weren’t sure if they’d be able to open at all! The situation in community pharmacy is dire - big recruitment issues, supply problems, ever increasing workloads as they’re now the first point of contact for a lot of minor ailments like UTIs etc.

Surely that's part of the checking/signing off process, rather than the picking off the shelves process?

I don’t really see why this is causing such an issue. If a business deems itself unable or unaffordable to open at lunch that’s their perogative. It doesn’t affect me when I’ve got an urgent prescription because the GP is also shut at that time so I’m not trying to use the pharmacy at lunch. I’m also generally off work so not in a deadline. It doesn’t affect me with repeat prescriptions because there are so many options these days- online, delivery, 24 hour pharmacies, dispensing doctor, a bit of planning and it’s no issue. If I’m very rural my doctor can dispense the item without pharmacy involvement. I’m struggling to see what the issue actually is here? If I want sandwiches or tights there are plenty of other shops and options. I get the impression that people argue for things simply because they may want the option to use them on a rare occasion once a year but that’s not viable for a business model! Our small local boots has one pharmacist and usually 2 other staff in the shop. They’re obviously not going to be able to open at lunch and there’s clearly not enough business to employ more staff. And they’d be acting illegally to not give the staff a break and having to stay on the premises in case you’re needed isn’t a break

Pharmacists are also trained to be able to spot when doctors have made a mistake and query e.g. dosage, to know what drugs can’t be taken alongside other things, including over the counter medications, to give advice on minor ailments and more.

So how does the patient do that when they get their drugs delivered by a van driver, or through the post from an online pharmacy?? The postman isn't a pharmacist, nor is the delivery driver. They'd have to phone the pharmacy and/or GP surgery with any queries. So, likewise, if they were allowed to pick up meds from a pharmacy counter and there was no pharmacist present, they could just phone up later when s/he was in. I just don't get the problem at all. When the law was changed to allow for deliveries, it should have been changed to remove the need for the pharmacist to be present for counter handovers. I presume it was just an oversight from the rule/law makers!

@LadyBird1973

The law needs to change so that once a pharmacist has made up the prescription, the other staff can just hand it over

Exactly, if the drugs can be given to an unqualified delivery driver to hand over to the patient from the van, they should be able to be handed over the counter by counter staff. Once they've been checked and signed off by the pharmacist, it doesn't matter "who" actually hands them over to the patient. It's nonsense that a delivery driver can hand over but a counter assistant can't!

If there is only one pharmacist, when are they supposed to have their break?

Interesting point.
I knew someone who was a pharmacist and he said nowadays it's quite boring compared to the Victorian era when lotions and potions were mixed and made up on the premises.

I found a box of ''Opiate Confection'' online - These were made by a well known London chemist in the 19th Century.

There was a wonderful Pharmacy in Bristol in Clifton late last Century {20th } ''Baldwins'' that was basically untouched since Georgian times.
It was dark and fascinating with rows and rows of glittering coloured green, blue and clear bottles on the shelves, with gold labels and a beautiful painted ceiling {decorative}

When we went back recently it was an estate agents.. completely stripped of it's wonderful interior.

In the 1980s I had a Saturday job in a small chemist at the local shops. The pharmacist would go for lunch, and we would stay open, but people would scream blue murder if they couldn't buy cough mixture and paracetamol in that hour. Much easier on the staff to close for an hour.

You don’t, that’s often done by unqualified pharmacy assistants where I am. Pharmacists just have to initial as checked. The role of the pharmacist is if someone comes in and asks about whether there is a medicine for their rash, or their kids conjunctivitis or what not, and to answer any patients questions on the medicines they have been prescribed.

Out of interest, why do you need a highly trained and expensive pharmacist to take boxes off a shelf in line with the prescription and put them in a bag? Obviously it needs to be done accurately, but why do you need pharmacy qualifications?

It's not like It's a Wonderful Life when he's making the tablets, it's really only order picking? Or isn't it?

I guess if someone has a question, the onus is on them to collect when the pharmacist is there.

The law needs to change so that once a pharmacist has made up the prescription, the other staff can just hand it over. Theres no benefit to the pharmacist actually being on site - they don't come to the till and physically go through the prescription with you before handing it over

But theoretically they must if someone has a question about it. Maybe they remember they are taking OTC supplements and want to check it’s okay to take together, whether they need to take with food or timing, or whatnot. Yes, there are other ways for them to get that info but part of the license of a pharmacy is making sure a registered pharmacist is on site when things are dispensed in case (as I understand it). I’m not a pharmacist, another area of health but know a few colleagues married to pharmacists and this is what I recall anyway.

The law needs to change so that once a pharmacist has made up the prescription, the other staff can just hand it over. Theres no benefit to the pharmacist actually being on site - they don't come to the till and physically go through the prescription with you before handing it over. So Jane on the till can just as easily pass me the bag during lunch as after it!
The same with accepting prescriptions - if you can post a script through the letterbox of a closed pharmacy, it's totally illogical that you can't hand it over to a member of staff between 1-2!

Also people might need to pop in on their lunch break to get non prescription medicine or a packet of tights or something. Madness to close when lots of workers are on lunch.

We are becoming used to a drop in customer service standards. I'm surprised Boots is still going tbh - large branches aside, many of the small ones are grotty and badly stocked. It's such a shame because Boots used to be amazing.

They use a locum, don't they?

Holidays will be easier to get cover for than lunchtimes. Because a locum is more likely to want a bloc of a week or two of work than an hour in the middle of the day. In terms of being ill, maybe he just never is!

makes me wonder how my pharmacist has a holiday, or what happens if he were to go off sick
he is there every day from 8 until 6
the chemist is open at 9 and closes 1 til 2.15, and often i go in at 5 to 6 and i am not the only one!

They are not allowed to open unless a pharmacist is present and working. It's pretty straightforward. You can buy all over counter meds at a supermarket if the timing doesn't work.

@MrsBrie I am with you. I moved to England from Scotland and was shocked at the lunch break closure. And Sunday closing at 4pm. I honestly never ever had experienced this. So yes. It’s awful. Part of the problem is the model of pharmacies being attached to surgeries etc. It means there’s lots of small pharmacies rather than concentrating staff into bigger operations more centrally. Having said that there are small pharmacies in every village I’ve ever lived in in Scotland and they manage with one pharmacist not to close at lunch. The dispensing tech can handover the meds as long as pharmacist has checked them so they don’t have to actually be standing there all the time to visualise each handover.

Where I live, pharmacists are entitled to 30 minutes for lunch in a six hour shift. They would be hard pressed to leave, get to a restaurant, order, eat, and get back within 30 minutes.

If your average sole trader pharmacist is taking an hour for lunch, they'll lose business if / when someone else sets up shop locally and takes half an hour for lunch. Treating your customers as if they have nothing better to do with their time than wait for you or take time off their paid work when you have them over a barrel is not a good business model.

Correct, and it's the same in the US, but a tech can dispense a prescription that has already been approved, and if a pharmacist takes half an hour for lunch, there isn't much of a delay in getting it approved and filled (in the case of most prescriptions).

I get a controlled drug {painkiller} prescribed, and had a new pharmacist.

They handed me a bigger feeling packet than usual , and when I got outside, I opened the bag...and saw that I'd been given an extra box.

Goodness knows how that happened.

Anyway...I took the extra box back immediately...the pharmacist was shocked and very grateful.

Haven't ever had an error done like that before or since, though.

Ours doesn’t close but the pharmacist isn’t there so I can’t get my controlled drugs so I have to remember to go first thing before work

So when people work they complain they don't get a break but when others take a break that is an issue

They did not have a meeting and go 'how can we annoy customers today' they have their reasons

A dispensing technician rightly cannot approve prescriptions.