What the hell is going on with pharmacies

[thinkponk48]

There are three pharmacies in my town. All three have restricted opening hours. I stood in line for 25 min a few days ago to get a prescription filled. I was told it had to be ordered and pick it up today. Got there Today and pharmacy closed!!!!

Are companies not paying properly or are we suddenly short of pharmacists

Im not even talking about not being able to get certain drugs I understand supply chain issues but I don't understand the staffing issues. Surely this is big chains cutting costs

@Cats4life I agree 1000% with you!. I dont think you realise how bad it actually is until you get off the treadmill. Im not a pharmacist, but worked up from counter assistant to ACT (which is another level of a thankless job!). I now work in the civil service, boy they dont know how cushy they have it 😂 I wouldnt step foot in community pharmacy ever again.

I got 3 As at A level, have a first class masters degree and would make more as a beautician (not slagging them at all btw but I spent 4yrs getting myself into considerable debt). When I qualified the pay was 18,000 for a pharmacist manager and that was about 8yrs ago.

I was picking up a script for a family member and the pharmacist told me they had been approached to work in America. They asked me what I thought as I have lived in the US for 20 years.

They were being offered $150k/yr. I told them there wasn’t a cat in hells chance I would do their job for that pay. I explained kindly that there is an opioid crisis and yes you should expect to be held up at gunpoint at some stage. That’s why no one wants to do the job. Now, pay me $500k and provide life/disability insurance for $10m on a post tax basis and I’ll consider it.

I wonder how many British based pharmacists have said yes?

Slightly aside to your point, but I’ve visited my local independent pharmacy a lot for prescriptions over the last year - stupid health - and thought boy do the staff work hard. In a windowless room, all tripping over each other and the deliveries and with their phone ringing off the hook, and still managing to be helpful and kind. Open 9 until 6. Think they were closed one day over Christmas.

Their systems could be a bit better but I suspect they barely get time to draw breath.

I try not to need anything on a Monday as they’re particularly besieged, then.

@Cats4life I think we did the same thing, took a pay cut to escape!

Everything you said is 100% true. I don't think the general public have any idea how bad things have got and how many people might loose access to their pharmacy altogether if things carry on as they are.

telling people to see their Pharmacist instead of a G P cant have helped, Im amazed they agreed to it.

Thank you!

Also dont think people realise that 1 mistake could kill or seriously injury someone and that having a pharmacist working 60hrs a week doing the job of 3 with no break isnt really the best idea.

We are also facing opioid addictions in part of the UK and pharmacy staff often are threatened or succumb to physical violence. I have had myself and others pushed to the floors, spat at, harassed outside of work, followed and threatened because I did my job.

I was threatened once because I wouldnt sell a man something to sedate his baby. I was accused of slapping a baby out of their pram to the floor. (Luckily after an investigation the CCTV proved this to be a complete lie but I still had to serve this customer who tried to destroy my career and livelihood. ) All this on a regular day and then it's back to work.

The pharmacy system is in crisis. There have been cuts to how they are paid (by heath autority/government) and services changed meaning it's more and more difficult for either chains or independents to survive.

Round here there are very few who will deliver medication, so the elderly and disabled struggle.

All cough/cold/flu medication has been in short supply this winter. Even tesco and asda with their buying power has had empty shelves.

Is this why some prescribed drugs are very difficult to get? I had to give up on getting one drug I needed one off as nowhere had it and they said they could not order it.

Did anyone ask them? It seems like the sort of thing that just gets said.

I was a pharmacy dispenser then a tech for 8 years, left because three of us worked our arses off for little above minimum wage. Got on with most of our patients and did what I could for them and their families but the job was getting harder. Younger staff and students on placement would just not show any initiative and with the increasing workloads, resentment and shit pay it just wasn't worth it anymore.
I do admin in higher education now, more holidays, Weekends off and decent staff benefits, the pay is much better as well.
I miss my colleagues and patients but something had to give.

Well there's lot of reasons but a lot of meds aren't being manufactured in the quantities demanded.

The pharmacy attached to our surgery (part of a local chain) was fabulous during covid - they had volunteers who manned their WhatsApp helping to confirm if things were ready to collect and giving a time slot. Once their furlough ended and they went back to work, the whole system collapsed and the queues were horrendous - usually with multiple trips as things weren’t ready to collect when they’d hoped they would be.

we swapped to a local independent pharmacy who happily took our over ordering our repeat prescriptions and dispensing them. They have a machine on the outside of the pharmacy which you can collect your items from after they’ve been dispensed 24 hours a day. They send you a PIN code each time. It’s fabulous!

They have recently had to stop doing the reordering of everyone’s repeat prescriptions because of the time that it was taking but they’ve set up what seems to be a really good online system. They’ve also stopped opening on Saturday mornings, but with the collection machine that’s not been a problem for us.

I make sure I thank them at every given opportunity, including a hamper of goodies at Christmas as their efficiency really does make living life with chronic illnesses much easier.

This is in South Wales btw. Maybe the fact that we don’t have to pay for our prescriptions makes it easier as I don’t need to actually visit the shop to pay.

Our local pharmacies were the same about 9 months ago - closing early with no notice, or simply not opening for the day, with just a hastily written notice on the door. When they were actually open it was chaos. I used to queue for 45 or 50 minutes to pick up a prescription, only to be told that one of the prescribed items was not available!

After a couple of months, I gave up and switched to an online pharmacy that delivers prescriptions to my door. No problems since then. I order in good time, at least a month before I need the meds.

Last time I went into the pharmacy, it was quiet in there, so I suspect I'm not the only person with repeat prescriptions who has defected to online prescription orders.

Hopefully, this means that people needing to collect medicines prescribed for an acute illness will not have to wait so long any more.

There is a good reason it is done that way.
In large trials it was proved that issuing more than 1 or 2 months of medication led to increased waste and costs. You might be sensible with medication but, unfortunately it seems that most of the medication taking public are not, as is proven by the huge bags of unused prescription meds returned when people die, move house or go into care

When my parents died I could not believe the amount of stockpiled medication in the house.

I gave-up and now use Phlo online pharmacy. The service is first class. It costs no more than any other pharmacy, delivery is fast and free and for a small postage fee, you can even get same day delivery (not available in all areas yet) and you can ring the pharmacist any time for friendly, helpful advice etc!

My husband was having problems with local pharmacies recently, he tried Phlo on my advice and he loves it too. I’m all supporting local businesses, but many local pharmacies don’t offer good enough customer care to deserve that support.
wearephlo.com/phlo-is-a-game-changer?utm_medium=search&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=nat_brand&utm_term=exact&gclid=CjwKCAiA_vKeBhAdEiwAFb_nrc6rqev52jmRnGOuoJSLWGMApZfB9zb51D2mOnCztgUFMGAScXPo_hoCJikQAvD_BwE

I have to wait 20 mins or so everytime for prescription but otherwise no issues

They are qualified in giving basic advice on things like medication however the ones I've dealt with have went way outwith their scope of practice. The latest one, insisting that my conjunctivitis was viral as opposed to bacterial and refusing to sell me chloramphenicol ointment, as in her 'qualified' opinion, it wasn't clinically indicated. I explained to them that i had already been assessed via an online GP service, in which I had been advised to obtain this medication. However no, this person apparently knew better than the GP. I had to then politely insist that I spoke to the pharmacist, who qgreed that i needed them and gave me them. That was a pharmacists time wasted when I didn't even need to speak to the pharmacist.

Going to a pharmacy doesn't mean you always need to speak to a pharmacist, no. Sometimes I go to a pharmacy to buy paracetamol, plasters, or sometimes I even pop in to get a cheese sandwich, kit kat and bottle of 7up in my boots meal deal. However sometimes you do need to speak to a pharmacist. And these people (or at least the ones that I've had the misfortune in dealing with) seem to think that the tiny bit of basic training they have been given makes them qualified to be giving out medical advice that they aren't qualified to give out. And making assumptions that your medical issue is just this or just that and you don't need anything except "some warm water and a cotton ball" when in fact, they are not qualified to diagnose.

I also said to the woman that I do need these drops as advised by the GP and if she didn't feel comfortable selling me them then that was fine but that I would need to insist on speaking with the pharmacist. I said to her that if he/she is busy then I don't mind waiting but that I did need this medication. She had a face like a slapped arse at this and stomped off to get the pharmacist. Who saw me after about 10 minutes and was absolutely lovely, taking a look at my eyes and saying that he did think that I needed them. The pharmacists time (which is precious) could have been saved if it wasn't for her wanting to feel important and stand there dishing out medical advice and diagnoses that she wasn't qualified to give.

Are any of these Pharmacies Lloyd's? My local one is Lloyd's & it is hardly ever open, I've swapped to an independent pharmacy, get my prescriptions delivered free & they are so good & helpful, I had some new medication prescribed & it was delivered within an hour of me speaking to the doctor.

I went to Lloyds first. The person behind the counter (may or may not have been a pharmacist) said we don't have this stuff (unusual prescription) i replied that's not a problem the consultant said it would need to be ordered. He actually shrugged his shoulders at me and said "yea we don't do that". No wonder they are closing

I'm in London and am well served by pharmacies, independent, chain and supermarket, so don't feel this personally (or at least haven't yet!)

But the crux is cost of living crisis. If the going rate for being a locum doesn't increase, people may well choose not to do it because they barely make anything.

Its worse for banks. In our town we had 6 banks. Now only 2. To get help, your have to go to the post office. The queues on a Saturday are very very long there

Staff shortages
Supply shortages

DD works in a pharmacy, and loves it. I think she regrets not doing a pharmacy degree now. Unfortunately it isn't an option to do it at postgrad or she would do so. Her pharmacy is open 9 - 6 six days a week.

Everything is going down the shitter. Services are cutting costs all over the place to maximise profits and blaming it on Brexit/ the war/ the strikes/ the pandemic/ cost of living/ inflation. It’s all becoming one big never ending self fulfilling continuous prophecy.