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?

same here, told him to leave or police coming. just seems to be this pharmacy we use, not just me loads o friends comment on it, iv been near tears before they are so rude (and that takes a lot!!) but they have always time a smile and a chat for the addicts, btw i am certainly not against the guys going in for there methadone have spent some time with addicts and try to be v understanding x

There is a simple reason Boots are so slow to fill prescriptions its so you end up wandering round the shop and buying yourself something you neither need or want!

complain about the staff justhavin,everyone should be treated with respect.

Is it a independent pharmacy?

ha I agree bees

I do think Boots has a lot of protocols and redtape bs from what I've heard

it is independant but next door to surgery so prob doesnt have to try too hard for business x

Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, try waiting at the HOSPIATAL PHARMACY ! Fuck me, I swear I witnessed 3 coats of paint dry...

Apocalypse - at least your hospital pharmacy was open!

DH got discharged from hospital when he was very ill (ie had been told to go home and stay in bed for a couple of months, not to hold anything heavier than cutlery, not to do anything, no walking other than to the bathroom etc) with less than 24 hours worth of meds and a prescription for a week's more then he was expected to get to see his GP for more.

Other friends/family who are docs have said he should have been in for longer, only reason he was booted out was because it was bank holiday weekend.

I couldn't do anything for him as I was in hospital with pre-eclampsia at the time and gave birth the next day (when dh went into hospital I was 39+3 pregnant. I didn't know if I was going to be a widow before I became a mum - all touch and go, that's how seriously ill dh was.

luckily my uncle stepped into the breach and picked him up and managed to find an open chemist that had the drugs he needed at short notice. but still think it was scandalous a) that he was discharged when he was still so ill and needed so much care when there was nobody around to look after him and b) that they were happy to send him away thinking that he would be able to go and hunt down medication on a bank holiday by himself (pure fluke that uncle wasn't on holiday and was able to help, the hospital didn't know it at the time)

Can you tell that 5 years on I am still about this! and breathe....

Bloody hell !! I thought an hour for a kids liquid laxative was bad !

I have heard that pharmacists make a point of being very 'chatty' with their methadone customers, as they have to make sure that they have actually swallowed the methadone, So they keep them talking to make sure the medication isn't spat out and sold when the customer leaves the shop (eww). Don't know how true that is but it does seem to work like that in my local pharmacy.

My dad is a pharmacist and he said that in general the methadone patients were very polite and pleasant, but yes, they are usually obliged to take it in front of the pharmacist and they try to keep them there a few mins to ensure compliance. However, often it's more a case of you getting to know them as they come in every day.

There is more than bagging it, someone has to check it is correct. So it takes two people to do a prescription not one.

I have had numerous pharmacists refuse to give me dd's prescription for omeprazole for her reflux as "its not for babies, or its in tablet form" the script is from a consultant paedotrician-sp- and its fairly common these days to give it to babies.It makes me feel so stupid if people are behind me and also with a new born you could do without the fuss.Its a guilt trip enough to give a small baby medication.
my sister is a hv and said it happens to a lot of people.

Doctors mis-prescribe fairly frequently. The pharmacist is partially there as a safeguard against this.

If there's no license for the product as prescribed, the pharmacist has to query it with the prescriber. If they cant get hold of them, they cant really dish it out in case it is a genuine mistake.

Being a pharmacist isn't like working in Argos. They don't just retrieve the item and give it to you. There are various checks they have to make, cross reference other meds etc. It wouldn't take years to train if it was that simple. I'm not a pharmacist but know a couple.

Justhavin - the pharmacy you are using seems to work the way a pharmacy i worked in used to run. It was right next to a doctors surgery and would frequently have two people waiting for at least 10 items each which meant anyone behind them in the queue would have a 30 min wait at least. About a year ago they got a new manager who changed things so people with one item or Rx's for under 5's (if less than 3 items) were placed in a separate queue. It seemed to make most of the patients happier though you did get some people who had handed in 14 items complaining that someone who arrived 10 minutes after them were getting their medicines first despite the fact the dispenser was only half way through picking the stock for their medicine from the shelves and the patient getting told how it would be about 30 minutes when they handed their prescription in.

Apoc - Waits at hospital pharmacies can be are a nightmare but, it tends to be because they are doing medication for the entire hospital as well as your own. Also the average person handing in a prescription at a community pharmacy is for 2.6 items whereas in hospital the average person is getting 8 items.

IME Boots do take an age and a half and I'm sure that although it may be because they're busy it isn't owing to any restrictions on serving a customer immediately.

I say this as any prescriptions I have are dealt with by the pharmacy at my semi-rural GP's surgery. The GP presses the button on his PC to send the prescription to the in-house pharmacy, I thank him and leave the room, I walk the 20 yards or so to the pharmacy counter, press the bell, announce my name and hey presto, my medicines are ready and waiting!

I never wait. I go and do the rest of my shopping while they see to it. Easier all round I think.

They could save a bit of time generally by not questioning me when I buy non prescription items. I do understand why someone made a rule for that, but it gets tiresome.

If asked "is this for you" I say no (this is frequently true anyway as I have 3 shopping lists in my hand) but I say it anyway as I'm not interested in their opinion.

ledkr - if you use the same pharmacy all the time as them to add a note into your daughters file that the source of the prescription is a consultant paedotrician that way if any any pharmacist refuses in the future you can tell them to check the note on the file. Omeprazole itself is not uncommon for children it's the form which will be worrying the pharmacist as you can give omeprazole liquid (£100+ a bottle) or dispersable tablets as licensed medicine. If it's a capsule or ordinary tablet a pharmacist would want to check with the doctor as the medicine would be unlicenced and in the case of a baby pretty scary to give when you are 75% accountable for any harm coming to the child if you have not checked.

onagar - the reason why they question you is to make sure you do not buy medicine that will harm you. Last week i had a lady buying Sudafed for her father, when i asked about high blood pressure she confirmed he had this so I could not sell the medicine as it could potentially kill her father as it would increase blood pressure and maybe lead to stroke or heart attack. Her local pharmacy where she normally got her father's medicine (including high blood pressure medicine) never asked this question and had been selling a medicine that could have killed the patient. Now do you understand why we have to aske every time someone buys something? And just because you have had something before with no bad effect doesn't mean you can have it again as things may have changed ie pregnancy, medication, or the product license (Medised)

Oh Pharmacists - where do I begin?

Theres 2 near me. A llyods and an NHS one (which is fairly new). Went into LLyods once and told it would be 20 minutes, was busy so siad I'd run into Somerfield and be back. I returned, waved to pharmacist to let them know I was back, and waited another 20 minutes to be told they hadn't put it in to fill as I'd left, so in effect hadn't wanted to wait for it. Ten minutes later they told me one of my meds wasn't in stock.

The newish one is brilliant. If there is a wait (5-15 mins) you can leave and come cack and they fill it in your absense. They also order in anything you need and ring you when its in (although they give an estimated time scale) to save you going back to discover its not there yet. They have even told me to go in a week before DS epi-pens are due for renewal and they'll check they have them in and order them if not so we don't have to wait after the perscription is written. Now thats what I call service.

Must be a British pharmacy regulation as over here (Ireland) i walk in and hand my scrip to the chemist and they pop round the back (or hand it to a person in the back if it's a busier pharmacy) and before I've even had a chance to eye up the cosmetics it's ready for me.

CrossWhy, I know they mean well, but I'm a responsible adult and the assumption that I was picking it on the basis of the nicely coloured packaging irritates me. It would probably save lives if we had someone at every crossing asking adult pedestrians "have you practised your green cross code" but they wouldn't make any friends that way :)

When I used to have a lot of repeat prescriptions, I would just ring the GP to get the prescription done, then 48 hours later, ring the local pharmacy, who would collect it, make it up and deliver to me 48 hours after that. Pain in the bum, as I had to remember to order 4 days at least before I ran out (and I wasn't allowed to stockpile the meds, and could only have between one week and a months worth at a time, depending on how things were going), but it was easier than running about doing it all myself, and didn't cost anything.

My local independent pharmacist is brilliant. He's open all the time (probably why he lives on millionaires row) but because we're regular customers, he goes that extra mile to help and knows my partner by name.

My local pharmacist is brilliant. call up docs then the next afternoon prescription waiting for you. when you go in for over the counter stuff he talks you through it checks you can take it and for some reason always gives you the cheaper stuff instead of the "branded" twice the price stuff.