Waiting time for a prescription

[StepCombatAttack]

I went to the GP on Wednesday and as a result a prescription was sent to the local pharmacy. I went to collect the item and was told it would be five days. Is this normal now? Surely if a prescription is issued it is needed at the time? I know it’s Easter but it still seems a bit off.

It is probably because it is Easter and the item is not stocked or out of stock.

Can't magic up stock when there's no deliveries. I imagine they could have put it back on the spine and you can check other pharmacies to see if anyone has it on the shelf. Other than that if it was the pharmacy where I work, the item should be in after the delivery arrives on Tuesday.

(Not when we open, when the delivery has arrived... and preferably after it has been unpacked and the many, many prescriptions owing completed... so about 12.30)

At my surgery, once it is signed off by the GP (say during an appointment), ours are sent instantly and electronically to the chemist you've registered so you can go straight to chemist and get it made up (if the item is in stock).
If you request online, it usually takes a day or two for the GP to approve, then it is instantly at the chemist. I can see on the NHS app when it's signed.

I get my prescriptions from
Tesco. All very common things. If there is something that I need straight away, they dispense it within about 15 minutes otherwise it takes them several days to do it. I have had other prescriptions that were unavailable and I never got. I had to ask the doctor to prescribe an alternative.

@SabreIsMyFave
It is!

Omg that’s ridiculous. Prescriptions are sent straight away during and appointment be it in person or over the phone. The only issue I have had is if something not in stock but even then it’s a few hours or day at most to get it. Once they offered me an alternative. Repeats are 48hours if I order by phone but usually it’s far less. I think if I used the app it’s faster.

There was a slight delay during covid especially with certain meds but the pharmacy I used worked really hard to keep on top of things and get supplies to patients.

Myself, DH and one dd has repeats each month.

Actually I’ve just remembered last year I was given a script for my dd at a hospital we don’t usually use, it was the fastest appointment I could get. The consultant even said make sure the pharmacy give you the right stuff but there may be a delay. The hospital pharmacy had nothing in stock. It was over an hour from home so I wasn’t going back and said I’d take it to my local pharmacy but I couldn’t do that as the script was just for that pharmacy. I had to go back to the hospital unit and ask for a different script, but apparently they had never heard of what the pharmacy said I needed. In the end I went to my GPs surgery, same day after driving home, they got the gp to issue new scripts based on the documents I had from the hospital.

If you go into a pharmacy after the order for the day's medication has been sent (11.30am in ours) and the medication you want is not stocked or has run out, you will not be able to pick it up until the next working day...

so if someone came in after 11.30 on Thursday, and we had none on the shelf, they would not be able to pick up their prescription until around midday this coming Tuesday.

5 days for a repeat.

Sometimes after doctors app they don't have it in stock (quite frequently for repeats as well) so I ring round all the local ones to try to get it.

Pain in the bloody arse especially when you are ill.

We once had to drive 45 mins to the only place that had my daughter's thyroid meds in stock. They are notorious for shortages though. She spends half her life on the phone trying to get them.

I could understand for a repeat prescription. I know our pharmacy wants seven days for those, but this was at an GP appointment, and she put the request though to the pharmacy there and then. Five days!! I needed the stuff but didn’t realise I could ask the pharmacy for a copy and shop around. 🤷‍♀️I know now, thanks everyone.

Two weeks here for a request prescription - one week for the surgery to send it and another week for the pharmacy to get it ready. If you’re given it on the day by the GP, however the pharmacist will prioritise it whilst you wait. But since the introduction of the list of ailments the pharmacist can prescribe for themselves, they’re increasingly unavailable as they’re with patients and the prescription can’t be released without them present (even it has been propped by them already).

A request from a gp to a pharmacist would be immediate where I am. Whether the pharmacy has it in stock or would need to order it is another matter. I have meds on repeat, ordered through the pharmacy, and that takes two working days.

I had exactly that OP.
I was horrified , used to walk out the doctors with a paper prescription and get it dispensed immediately at the chemist.
Instead my doctor wrote an online prescription , I want to the pharmacy straight away wad told it takes up 48 hours to arrive !! And then theh take 3 days to dispense!!! FFS how is this progress. I live a 10- 15 drive from GP and chemist so it's really inconvenient at best and atcworst delays important medication.

Our repeat service is utterly ridiculous.

The surgery won't let you order until you have only two weeks worth of medicine remaining. They might take a day or two to approve it. The pharmacy then takes up to ten to fill it, all the repeat prescriptions are packed off site and sent to the branch.

This gives me two days to collect the prescription even though the pharmacy is open 9-5 and I work full time.

The surgery now only let me have two months worth of medicine so I have to go through this charade more regularly. Thank goodness I only have one item on repeat.

That seems wrong to me. For our surgery repeat prescriptions may be up to 5 days but on-the-day prescriptions as a result of an appointment will be at the pharmacy immediately.

It's got much worse here since they closed one of the pharmacies. On average it seems to take 5 days now though can be longer. When I was last in there and someone was complaining they said that antibiotics took precedence, for obvious reasons, and they tried to turn those round in 48 hours, which is still far too long to me.

Wtf at these responses?! I order repeats on the app (asthma, sertraline etc) and they're at the pharmacy in 2 days. Anything acute, like ds many many tonsillitis/strep infections, it's 20 minutes (they prescribe it over the phone now as I'm an expert...).

3-5 days makes no sense for anything you've needed an actual appointment for ie non repeats.

I usually order my vast list of repeats on a Thursday. About half the time I get a text from the pharmacy to say it's ready on Friday. The latest it's ever been is Tuesday.

Yes, pharmacies round here (city suburbs) are struggling. 2 local ones have shut down putting pressure on the rest. Befpre COVID I used to be able to able to pick up medication 20 mins-30 mins after visiting the GP. Same with blood tests,I used to be able to visit the GP, get the blood forms from them, go straight to the walk in blood test place, take a ticket off the machine on the wall and wait. I never usually waited more than 20 mins to get a blood test.

Last week I visited the GP, told i need blood tests and a presription (nothing to do with the blood test). The soonest I can get a blood test is 2 weeks from now. Not even tried to pick up the prescription yet because its 7-10 days now between GP sending it and being ready to pick up.

Imagine if you're someone having a condition likely needing medication.First you wait to get an actual appoitnment. You may have to wait for a telephone appointment, then the gp says that you need to come in face to face so they can examine you and discuss further. More waiting for a face to face appointment. At the face to face appointment the GP decides you need a blood test. You wait another 2 weeks for that. THen you wait for the results, then wait to get an appointment with the gp to discuss. Only THEN do you get a prescription which will take a further week to 10 days before you can start it......It's not great anymore, is it? In fact, it's appalling.

That’s insane. If I see my GP and get a prescription it goes right to the pharmacy near my house and I can collect it on my way home, 10 minutes later. Zone 3 London.

Surely no GP would see a patient and prescribe antibiotics but be fine with the medication not being started for 5 more days? That’s how people get sepsis!

I've not had a script for ages, but I'd pick it up from the GP, cross the road to the pharmacy, pay, and wait 10 mins for them to dispense it. This does not sound like progress.

Mine is really quick
I put a repeat in online about 11pm and a note apologising and saying I had forgotten to order and was running out
Text at 8.05am the next morning from the doctor saying it had been sent to the chemist and would be ready by 9am

Mine keep getting stuck between the GP and Boots. And Boots don’t ever answer their phone so there is no way to know that they haven’t got it without going in and standing in the ridiculously long queue, only to be told to come back later/the next day (and queue up again). I’m getting really fed up with it. It’s such a crap system.
I’m going to ask if I can it all on paper next month, so I can take it in myself, at least I will know they have it.

That doesn’t sound right. If I’m given a prescription at an appointment then I can get it at the pharmacy immediately.

If I request a repeat online it takes around 2/3 days. If it’s urgent I can drop in a note and they’ll have it ready the next day.

My gp sends the prescription link to my mobile which I can take to any pharmacy instantly

I make a request at the gp surgery in the NHS app, the request is approved, usually on the afternoon that day and it is sent to the pharmacy in hours, I can pick up my prescription there and then, mere hours later if I want to.