5 days to fill a prescription.

@melj1213

Compared with how things work where I live (in Europe) what you've described is only one step in advance of the quill pen and carrier pigeon.

I have a repeat prescription for a long-term condition. My GP is allowed to pre-approve prescriptions for 3 months, so when I call for a repeat prescription the staff can process it immediately. After 3 months I need to speak to the GP (which the system flags up) but this can be a 5 minute phone consultation.

Once the surgery has approved and ordered the prescription, the data is live on my electronic record, which the pharmacist (any pharmacist anywhere in the country) can access using my electronic health card. This happens instantly.

At the pharmacy, I present my e-card to the assistant, who can see the prescription on screen and who calls up the medicine from the stock. The drugs are automatically picked from stock and transported to the front counter by an automated system, using bar-code technology, and the actual packet is also checked again by the assistant for accuracy (using the bar code) before being handed to me. From handing them the e-card to receiving the drugs takes no more than a minute or two, and the assistant takes any payment and discusses any issues while the drugs are being retrieved.

Having lived in several European countries, I can say that this is basically the same system that is used in many countries.

@RuthW helpfully confirms that there is an NHS barcode system in place in the UK, so technically this should also be feasible in the UK, but would require investment in technology andin the stock room and a change to working practices.

As for stock, one of my drugs is not particularly common so the first time I went to my local pharmacy they did not have it in stock. It was ordered and arrived the next morning. When I collected it I said that this is a drug that I will need every month, so it was added to their basic stock and is now always available.

Thanks for clarifying @melj1213 and for everything you do. I know it's a really tough job.

I work in a surgery. It's not normal. Acute prescriptions done as soon as you finished talking to the clinician. You can walk into any pharmacy and show them the bar code on the nhs app and get it within about 30 mins depending on how busy the pharmacy is.

I work in a pharmacy, we do ask people to put requests in to the GP for repeat prescriptions at least a week before they run out just because some GPs are taking 2-3 days to process the requests before sending them to us; then sometimes we are running a day or two behind purely due to the sheer volume of prescriptions we receive. We receive about 200 electronic scripts a day plus walk ins, process upwards of 5k prescriptions and dispense over 10k items every month.

Add in the fact we are always understaffed and if a locum pharmacist calls in sick/doesn't turn up/turns up late or leaves early then we legally can't do anything if there is no pharmacist on site and we can easily end up behind and we may not process your prescription on the day we receive it. Then, once we do process it if it's not something we have on our shelves then we have a minimum of a 24hr turnaround to order it, receive it and dispense it ready to be collected, provided it isn't a weekend as suppliers only deliver Mon-Sat, so anything ordered on Sat will be delivered on Monday at the earliest.

Once you factor all of those things in it can easily be a week for a prescription to be processed, but if you walk in and ask about an electronic prescription we haven't yet got to then we will treat it like a printed prescription someone has just walked in with - we print it off, check we have the stock and tell you how long it will take (usually only about 10/15 mins but if we are slammed or the pharmacist is tied up with an emergency/complicated issue then we may ask for longer).

Even if we don't have the item on the shelf we will check our suppliers' websites and if it is in stock we will advise you how long it will take to be delivered (usually next day unless it's a special order item). If you're happy to wait we process the prescription there and then so that the item is ordered; if not - or it's out of stock with our supplier - then we will let you know and advise you the best other pharmacies to try for stock (We are in a supermarket so have set suppliers but there are a couple of independent pharmacies near by who have more flexibility with supply options; if it's after 5pm we will advise which other pharmacies are open as many local ones are only open M-F 9-5)

As a bare minimum, if someone came in, even if we were weeks behind with electronic prescriptions we would prioritise their prescription to get it done asap, not just tell them "I don't care how urgent it is, come back in 5 days"

This

We're told to allow two working days for prescriptions but in reality they are normally done the same day during the week, first thing next weekday at the latest. If I go to the pharmacist to collect it and it hasn't been made up they will do it straight away,

It’s normal if there’s a shortage of the medication, it’s much quicker if it’s there in the shelf.

I take adhd medication and there were shortages of it for about 6 months and, even when there was a small amount of stock, it had to be ordered in. As it’s a controlled drug the GP could only prescribe a few days in advance which made it tricky to fill a prescription before I ran out!

Most pharmacies will tell you their stock over the phone to save you having to drive round. I regularly called 15-20 pharmacies to find stock or stock of different mg so I could get an altered prescription.

I can submit a repeat on the app after tea on Friday and it'll be there on Tuesday.

You can't see a doctor for love or money locally though.

My nearest chemist closed, they had been okish. The one we go to now is brilliant. I drop my prescription request at the doctors and they take 3 days to turn it around but my pharmacy do it the day they get it.
My husband and I both have a lot of medication and very quickly the assistant knew who I was and would ask if I was collecting for myself of husband .
On one occasion a person came in and said that a person had collapsed just down the street and that someone was putting them in the recovery position whilst waiting for an ambulance. The pharmacist assistant said to the pharmacist " oh I wonder if he's one of ours?" She stuck her head out and recognised him . She knew his name and that he was diabetic. The pharmacist went straight down to the person and was able to help them whilst waiting for the Ambulance.

Was this Boots because they were awful with my dd.

I went in with a prescription for adhd meds to the big boots in town and they were awful. The psych had put several options on the prescription because it’s hard to get.
Boots lady took one look at the script and said we haven’t got any, can’t get any and you won’t get it anywhere when I asked for advice. It’s the first line of possibility as regards adhd meds so not a niche med. I was aware there are shortages but thought they’d be able to order or I could try other pharmacies. They were so unhelpful. My dd has severe mental health struggles and is self medicating so it was quite important we get some.

Anyway as desperate I tried our local pharmacy and they were lovely,so helpful. Not only that they had it in stock. I didn’t even need to order it or wait and they had it again 2 weeks later. 😳

Never going back to Boots they were awful. It’s just a production line.

Your second point is only part true though, once a prescription has been sent to a specific pharmacy they have to “release” it before another pharmacy can dispense it (which is what has happened for OP). If you haven’t specified a pharmacy you are able to use it at any

Any script I have received from a doctor I've got same day. I order my repeat scrips online. Take max 2 days

Day Lewis where I am are shocking.

From the point a prescription has been issued, they want a minimum of 7 days to make it up.

Nope, you've had it for days and I need it.

It’s all batshit OP. I went to chemist today with a prescription, lots of Oh and Umming, went out the back, overheard her saying, terrible handwriting (the dr’s), can we get it?, it’s going to be very very expensive (it was a private prescription). Came back and said they might be able to get it tomorrow. They are normally really good so I said thanks but no thanks.

huge Boots ten minute drive away so I go there instead. The pharmacist said he’s been in the business for 12 years and it’s never been available in that time.
My poor relative is sat at home in lots of pain. Fortunately pharmacist offered an over the counter alternative which I’m hoping will work.

(don’t know what your DD’s issue is but over the years I’ve used a lot of essential oils like tea tree and lavender etc for skin issues, mixed lavender with e45 cream for burns etc - always worked really well. Might be worth a dr google) hope she feels better soon.

What part am I getting wrong?

OP, have you got it now? If not you could look on google to find the manufacturer and contact them?

Or ring round other pharmacies.

Thankfully that’s my experience as well. There was one time they couldn’t find stock of something. I emailed the manufacturer and they sent some to the pharmacy.

It's always been the same, though. One of my first jobs at age 16 (35+ years ago), the pharmacy kept a stock of commonly prescribed items. We would note on a pad when items were used during our shift and then whoever was on in the afternoon rang an order through to the wholesaler before 5pm (I think) each day. Replacements were delivered next morning. Items that weren't stocked as routine were ordered in the same way, so were generally either available by lunchtime the following working day or the day after if it was after 5pm. Alternatively, the pharmacist had a list of phone numbers and would ring round to see if they had it available, if so, we'd borrow it and replace when our stock came in. Small, independent pharmacy.

Our local pharmacy has had really bad staffing issues over the last year, and at one point was 2.5 weeks behind on filling prescriptions. If you turned up and it wasn't ready, they would do it there and then if you were able to wait, but of course that's probably less efficient. Things got so bad that they sometimes opened late or closed for an afternoon or morning to allow them to catch up a bit without having to stop for customers - but that meant that if you needed the medication urgently and the prescription had been sent direct to the pharmacy, you couldn't get it at all. There were also some closures just because there was no pharmacist available to cover holiday/sickness. Things have been better recently but apparently the branch in the next village is now having problems.

Some people tried contacting head office, and that did seem to have some effect - I think they ended up working evenings to clear the backlog, with managers pitching in.

I don't know whether there is a general shortage of pharmacists, or whether the company is just not employing enough to ensure they can cover sickness and holiday, and perhaps a bit of double-staffing when needed.

Despite the difficulties here, DD had a prescription for steroid cream recently and collected it the day it was prescribed - albeit half the quantity initially as that's all they had in. So it can be better than your DD's experience.

@spanieleyes22 exactly, your chemist should have advised you when they suggest you try a different chemist. They send it back to the central system and a different chemist can recall it.

Your gp and pharmacist should both have advised that the medicine they prescribed can be purchased privately.

It's not a normal turnaround time for prescription medicine but in the system we have to deal with that is massively strained and under pressure, knowing these things will help navigate and reduce wait time for treatment.

That's a crap pharmacist.
Several ones in my town have different suppliers but they will ALL check for you immediately if they don't have it in, whether the distributor has it.
If they do, they will get it in their next delivery (usually next day).
If not, they will suggest ringing round or occasionally they will suggest a different formulation (eg my migraine tablets were out of stock everywhere -they said they could get double strength or I could try a spray - I always take 2 tablets anyway so the GP just issued a new prescription for the double strength).

Tell me you know nothing about pharmacy, without telling me you know nothing about pharmacy. 'lol'.

But OP, no not normal. Just a bad experience.

Observing from abroad, the British public really do look as though they have been sleepwalking (or perhaps conned) into the current situation - poor public services have been allowed to become normalised, with the Conservative politicians happy to say "Yeh, but we kept taxes down" (which they actually didn't) safe in the knowledge that they themselves can pay for things like private healthcare that the hoi polloi cannot afford.

If anyone is interested, this is what healthcare looks like here (and for those who were not around then, broadly similar to how it used to be 20 years ago in the UK):

• GP appointments - walk in and wait for 10-15 minutes. There are early morning and late evening sessions too, and weekend sessions. (Actually, when I first moved here and went to ask for my first appointment, the receptionist said "No, you can't book an appointment." Seeing the look of confusion on my face she said, "You just sit over there and you'll be seen in about 15 minutes.")
• Ambulance - arrives within 10-15 minutes. Air ambulances available where needed - e.g. in rural areas - and funded by the health service.
• A&E waiting times - measured in minutes rather than hours.
• Consultant/specialist/hospital appointments - rarely more than a 2-week wait. The receptionists apologise if it is more than a month. Patients call to book the appointment, so it is at a time that suits them.
• Minor elective surgery - which I've needed once. The time from seeing the GP to having the operation was less than a month.

And for the benefit of Hunt and Sunak, who keep bleating about Covid being the cause of the backlogs and waiting lists - we had Covid here too, as did the rest of Europe. The hospitals here caught up with the waiting lists and were back to normal in a matter of months after the worst of the pandemic was over.

No. Ours is same day . In fact today I put dc one though the GP postal box at 8.45am on School run. Had text at 11 to say it's sent to chemist. Text at 12.30 from Chemist to say it's ready.

The most is 24hrs and that's only if my gp is day off which is a Tuesday.

We also have 0 issues getting an apt. We seem to he really lucky.