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.

Seems the availability of your medication depends on where you live.
I can’t get started on my treatment until nearly a week after seeing my GP. 😮

Can you buy it from an online pharmacy with next day delivery

Reading the thread and all the responses is quite useful - many variations across the miles.

Where I live we can order repeat prescriptions via 4 different apps 14 days after the date of the last one that was issued, they're issued electronically within 48 hours to the chemist - we have to allow 7 days before we can collect the meds from the chemist.

If you have a GP appointment, any prescriptions are sent straight through to the chemist - priority is given to these 'acute' prescriptions so you can collect them shortly after from the chemist.

I can’t believe what I’m rereading, I know there have been problems with getting gp appointments and that some medication is hard to get at times, but these wait times are ridiculous! We don’t even need to wait at our pharmacy we have a whole in the wall dispenser that stores prescriptions, we get a text to let us know it’s ready. The only prescriptions we don’t automatically get sent there are the dcs as it’s not refrigerated and most kids antibiotics need to be kept refrigerated.

It’s also 24hours so we can get them any time.

That’s fascinating, is it an independent pharmacy or a chain?

@AliceMcK ‘s 24 hour dispensing machine I mean)

If it’s a new medication for an acute condition then it’s sent straight to the pharmacy. In reality you need to leave a couple of hours before picking it up.

for repeats - I order them two weeks early to allow plenty of time for the inevitable back and forward of missing prescriptions and others problems!

I've just moved and where I lived there were five or six pharmacies within a ten minute walk. Where I am now there are only two - two having closed in the last year or so - or a bus ride to the local shopping centre. As a result the queues for collecting prescriptions are usually a dozen people and more.

You are lucky that your pharmacy has a large stock of medication sitting on the shelf. If they did not have stock left of a particular item the afternoon before a couple of bank holidays, how would they get the item to be able to put it in the machine?

Our suppliers don't deliver to the pharmacy on Sundays or bank holidays. And the order has to go in before 4.30pm Friday (or last week, Thursday) to get Saturday morning delivery. So a 5pm last Thursday request for urgent medication (that we had none left of) will be available middayish this Tuesday... If the order turns up.

A lot of areas have had pharmacies close which then puts pressure on the ones that remain.

Here, Boots bought up most independent pharmacies a while ago. They've recently closed three in my local area, leaving big gaps where there is no easily available pharmacy and big queues at the ones that are open. There's now only one I can get to on a work day.

@TimeandMotion its an independent.

@BeyondMyWits it’s a small pharmacy in a small market town. I don’t use the app to order repeats, the gp has a prescription line from 11am to 3pm and they will tell us the pharmacy will have them in 48hours, but most times it’s the same day. i have 6 regular repeats, DH 1 and DD 1, I think our pharmacist is just really organised and gets stock on regular repeats in. They also deliver a lot of meds. If they are out of stock depending on the time of day they will get same day orders in or next day. I use to use the pharmacy attached to the surgery but it was always busy. There are only 2 doctors surgeries in the area and 6 pharmacies. The GPs and my pharmacy close at 6pm but the pharmacy staff still work till about 8pm processing prescriptions putting them in the machine.

Even during covid they worked late to make sure all orders were fulfilled quickly.

I know I’ve been lucky never having to wait for a prescription, I don’t know why my pharmacy is able to supply prescriptions when needed and others don’t.

We have 3 chemists in our village all the same chain, they bought the only other independent chemist out last year and closed it down so we lost the only late night & 7 day a week service in one day - never re-opened. The chemist next door to the main GP surgery gets the most footfall - their repeat prescription service is a disaster and staff regularly get verbally abused as a result - it's not their fault but unfortunately they're the customer facing people who get the blame.