Pharmacists - am I missing something?

[Moulesfrites]

Since giving birth 9 weeks ago I have been back and forth to the gps for various ailments, and have gone to the branch of boots over the road to get my prescribed meds. Every time I have gone, I have been told that I will have to wait between 10 and 20 mins to get my stuff. They have not appearedtp be very busy, and at times, the pharmacist has actually asked me something and has had the item in question in her hand but I have still had to wait 15 mins to be given it- what happens during this waiting time? As far as in can see it just gets put in a bag with a sticker stuck on it- is there some sort of v complicated process that I am not privy to, or is it a ploy for me to browse the shop so that boots make more cash? Sometimes I think it would be quicker to drive to small independent pharmacy and be seen to straight away.

Aibu and impatient?

They are often dealing with prescriptions that are pre-ordered, but I agree, it takes forever. I use the pharmacy in the supermarket, hand it in as I go in, then its ready by the time my shopping is done.

Probably, they have to check the 'script against the medication. Make sure it's the right dosage, they may have others to do first that people are coming back for etc etc

10/15 mins isn't that long really. About average I found. If they're going to be any longer, I just say I'll be back for it later.

I have never understood why prescriptions take so long. I'm sure I am being unreasonable in that they all seem to be pretty slow therefore there must be a good reason for it, I just dont understand what that reason is.

Hopefully a pharmacist will come and enlighten us!

I go to a small independent in our village sometimes, they are quicker. But they are still a bit sort of strange. You stand there like a lemon while they sort of just stand there and look at you, and when a suitable amount of time has passed, they ask you to confirm your name and address (the one they just watched you write on there) and then suspiciously hand the packet over to you, glaring and wringing their hands

Oh yeah, recently I had pneumonia so while I was there I asked for some cough suppressant for particularly desperate nights where I couldn't get to sleep for coughing. Doc had told me to get some but not prescribed it (because its cheaper to buy it).

So I asked for a cough suppressant. "Anything will do, got anything with codeine?" I said. "Why do you want something with codeine" she asked suspiciously. "Because it suppresses coughs". In the end she sold me Benelyn Dry coughs original, which is excellent, over the counter only, has some kind of ingredient which isn't codeine but that works really well in suppressing coughs.

"Are you on any other medication" she said. Err, apart from the prescription you are filling for me, no. "What is that then". I dont know. You're the pharmacist...

waited 35 mins the other day, they had time to see 3 addicts for their methadone though!

Tatty,the pharmacist probably questioned you on the codeine as lots of people abuse codeine based medicines.

All meds have to doubled checked etc,the pharmacists have to check everything dispensers have dispensed too.Loads of checks.

I would think they had a long list of scripts waiting to go out (gp surgeries) so they were working through those.

I always call back if it's more than a 5 minute wait

and they serve methadone addicts before anyone else incase they decide to get verbally or physically aggressive.

I doubt you'll like that if you were waiting in a queue with your children.

YANBU. This drives me insane.

Our local pharmacy is really quick to serve and friendly but boots, they always have a waiting time of 45 minutes??!?!?! Regardless of time of day and rarely have things in stock either

Think it must be frustrating to do all that training to do what seems to be quite a mundane job.

Also, I know you're supposed to be able to ask them for advice about minor ailments but every time I have done this they have just done a cats bum face and told me to go to the gp...

My local pharmacist made me laugh the other week. I was prescriped some diazapam and the pharamcist warned me that it may interat with the antibiotics I was already o nand could cause seizures. "Stop using it if you have a seizure" she said..

They are responsible for medicines dispensed. Doctors sometimes make mistakes which are picked up by the pharmacist and queried. They are often dealing with more than over the counter prescriptions. Someone could die if they mess up. YABU.

I asked for some nytol, and was asked about other medication. When I told her I was on lithium, she said "oh no you can't then." I enquired why, just generally interested really, not aggressive or anything. Her professional answer- "because you cant" and walked away behind her little partition!

They can take a while, but there are good reasons.

Like others have said, they may have a long list of prescriptions they are making up. A lot of patients have a great many meds, some of which can interact with one another. GP's don't always notice these interactions when they are prescribing and it's the pharmacist's responsibility to spot these kind of things.

They have to do a lot of training because what they do is hugely important. It may SEEM mundane, but it's not. If pharmacists didn't do their job properly it could result in someone dying.

When I worked in a pharmacy we were told to allow 5 mins per item to allow the pharmacist time to find the medicine and get the label typed out. Sometimes the dispensers would get the medication ready, but the pharmacist still had to check it and do the labels.

We had a lot of customers who would come in with 3 prescriptions with 6 items on each (18 total) who always seemed gobsmacked when told it would take at least 30 mins. Sometimes I used to point out that there were 4 other people in front of them needing just as many items each.

The main thing that takes time is finding the correct patient record (or creating a new one if they've never used that pharmacy before) and printing the labels.

And everything has to be double checked from making sure you have the right patient details up, strength of medicine, whether any of it interacts with anything else the customer takes, whether the dosage is appropriate and that you have the correct number of tablets.

It is not uncommon for Gp's to prescribe medicine that is not appropriate. We one had an adult's dose of anti-biotics prescribed for a baby. Luckily the pharmacist realised it wasn't right and the surgery eventually faxed over the correct dosage.

So what happens in the 15 minutes you are waiting well her are some options:

That person who handed in about 20 items thirty minutes ago is due back in 5 minutes and all their stuff needs checked.

All the people that have handed in prescriptions and are not waiting in the store but are coming back and they did hand their prescriptions in before you so their medicine needs to be made up before yours.

A doctor has written a prescription that might harm an ill six month old baby and the pharmacist has decided that getting the baby's medication sorted out is a priority.

A doctor is writing an emergency prescription for a terminally ill patient for pain relief and wants to know what the pharmacy has available so he can write a prescription that can be dispensed without the relatives running around all the local pharmacies.

The dispenser is stuck on the phone chasing up stock that should have been delivered but the wholesaler is out of but just happens to have a different make of the same medicine is stock but the wonderful computerised ordering system cannot make the logically jump to send in the other brand.

The enitre computer system has just crashed for the fourth time that day and is getting restarted.

The pharmacist is having to do a minor ailment prescription for someone who has been sent their by their doctor who is trying to save on his prescribing budget and therefore wastes patient and pharmacy time.

And so the list goes on....

If you are lucky enough to get in a pharmacy with nobody in front of you then you should only wait 3 minutes per item.

If you are not happy with the service you are getting at Boots go elsewhere, LLoyds, Rowlands, Co-Op, etc would all be happy to take your prescription.

Ok ok I accept iabu, thank you for enlightening about the breadth and nature of their responsibilities...

Am just fed up of spending all that time in boots and spending money on unnecessary luxuries to pass the time - I am building quite a collection of urban decay eyeliners...must have more will power....

sorry thingumy, dont think thats reasonable. isnt it a shame that we pussy foot round these people in case the get abusive!! the people who work in this pharmacy chat away to the addicts when they come in (no probs with that in itself) but they treat everyone else like shit!

I've worked in a pharmacy and have served plenty of a abusive addicts,it's not nice to be spat at while you are doing your job.

It's good that your pharmacy has a rapport with addict clients as it makes life easier for all.

Sorry you don't like waiting though

i am hcw, got shouted at and intimidated on friday! was terrified! wasnt first time wont be the last, i treat all my patients the same way(very nicely) regardless, woulndt be nicer to anyone just to prevent trouble x

I'd be nicer to someone to prevent trouble if I worked in a pharmacy with just me and one other member of staff and might be worried that someone could pull a knife, etc on me. I'd do everything I could to minimise the chance of me getting beaten up, etc. I think its different if you work in a bigger setting/hospital with more staff about, etc.

I can't comment on your pharmacy justhavin

I do know that when I was working in a pharmacy,if we were abused by any customer they were refused and ordered to leave by our pharmacist.

There was no pussyfooting going on.

I do feel there's this towards heroin addicts picking up methadone scripts from from alot of people.

It's not the pharmacists fault that they've been prescribed the medicine,they have make sure they follow strict protocols when adminstering it within the pharmacy.

If that makes everyone else wait but keeps the pharmacy safe,so be it.

LOL Viva....that's the first thing they give when somebody is HAVING a seizure.

I don't know...in A+E we take the med out the cupboard, check it with someone else, write details on pack, get customer to check and sign. 2 minutes. That's if we stock the med, if not then off to the pharmacy...

I reckon that boots is desperately trying to push its 'prescription collection service' by making everyone wait so long, I never have to wait as long at independent pharmacies, who often have long queues that the serve really quickly