Pharmacy and meds

[Amaranthine]

For the third month in a row there's an item missing from my repeat prescription delivery. In the past two months it's been "tough shit" with no recourse. Prescription was collected today and an item missing, I rang the chemist 15 mins after collection and the stance is it should have been checked for at the chemist or I'm mistaken and it's in the bag.

Planning to change registered chemist after lockdown, I'm just fed up now.

Meant for Chat, asking MN to move...

Is it always the same item?

No

Was the item missed off the prescription from the doctor, or did they fail to put the item in the bag? Big difference

Hello, @Amaranthine - we've shifted this over to Chat now, as requested.

I have mine delivered, once a month. If they don't have one item in stock, or not enough, they deliver what they have and attach an IOU to the bag. System works well.

Item issued by doctors, not in the bag and not on owing slip.

Pharmacies order on behalf of the patient but sometimes they don't write acute items on the order or don't request an item. We only order what has been requested, we aren't mind readers. I've taken to ringing patients when the pharmacy put in an order but haven't ticked an item the patient had the previous month which is the same quantity as the other items. I'd rather clarify the order with the patient than have to sort out a complaint or have to order the missed off item a few days later.

Another pharmacy- bashing thread 🙄
They don't do it just to piss you off. I'd love to see you work a day in a pharmacy. I think you'll be very surprised how busy and stressful it is.

I've never had an item missed off my monthly repeat prescriptions so it must depend on the pharmacy and the op has a bad one

I order my own items, all the chemist have to do is fulfil it. I can understand a mistake, it's their attitude around it I have the issue with.

As awkward as it would be, you need to check there and then so you can say “actually xxx is missing.”

That way they can’t say you got it home and lied for extra prescriptions.

It’s there in evidence in front of them

In the pharmacy I worked in we used to get lots of people calling to say we hadn't given them everything on their prescription. 99% of the time it was because the surgery had issued the medication across two scripts and only given us the first one. If we had ordered the meds on their behalf the system flagged up if we hadn't received everything. If the patient orders the meds themselves then we wouldn't know anything was missing.

If the patient rang the surgery they'd be told it had been issued and that we'd collected their script. When we then rang the surgery to double check because we didn't have it, it would be sitting there in the box...

I always check Ds meds are right before leaving the pharmacy. When you have got home it is obviously going to get so much harder to clear up and mix ups

Boots are terrible won't use them

Sometimes we can get a script for someone in the morning, dispense it and put it away for collection, and then another script comes down for that person at the end of the day.

At Boots we have new dispensing software where we literally scan each box of tablets as its dispensed, so if its on the prescription then it can't be missed off when dispensing.

Boots is appalling

Went back to the pharmacy this morning, was called a liar and told I was drug seeking. I waited for the manager to arrive, made a complaint I'll follow up in writing, and they authorised the dispensing of the missing item.

What was the item that was missing?

It's an anti-spasmodic, like Buscopan. If it had been a controlled drug I would have understood the stance.

Weird that they would make such a big deal out of it then. They should have apologized for the mistake and sorted it out for you. It sounds like they need to review their customer service training.

For what its worth, if that had happened in our pharmacy we would have checked the prescription, to see if it was an error by:
the doctors (ie they hadn't included the item on the prescription),
the persons who dispensed and checked the prescription (ie it was missed at the dispensing stage and neither the dispenser nor the pharmacist noticed)
or a handout error (ie the prescription had come down separately and therefore in two bags and the person who handed out the prescription didn't notice another one for you)
We would then have to write a report and identify what could be done to prevent it happening again

Just make sure you double check at the counter next time :)

Gosh that was dreadful to call you drug seeking - was it a benzo?

Sounds like they need to brush up on their.customer service skills

I've had the same problem, I take 75mg levothyroxine a 25mg & a 50mg, only a 25mg sent, complained to doctors & got told it is my fault. I clearly said both when ordering & checked that both were on the list.

I take two opioids including Oxycodone, also take Diazepam. If I was drug seeking then I'd have far better options than a bloody IBS drug!! It's their process that needs reviewing, and customer service. I can appreciate they are under the pump at the moment but alienating customers isn't a smart move. I've no idea what the pay rate to pharmacies is, but considering DP and my rx approach 30 items it'll be a loss for them when we change. Like I said in a pp, I've no issue with mistakes, but consistently belittling and blaming the patient isn't going to result in a good outcome; that's excepting today's behaviour.

I've no idea what the pay rate to pharmacies is, but considering DP and my rx approach 30 items it'll be a loss for them when we change.
Wow, you could open your own pharmacy with that many items!