To think that if you request a prescription from the surgery

[SilverHawk]

Then don't email it to a pharmacy without your permission. Especially when you've put (in black and white) on the request 'pick up at surgery'.
I would post in legal but I do think that sharing this information with a pharmacy that I don't want to use is, 'Off'/ bad practice/ illegal?
Any ideas?

The pharmacists are not going to spread information about you, using your name, because they could get fired for that.

I have a friend who is a GP, and is the GP of several children in her daughter's class at school, as well as a few of the teachers. I can promise you that she has never once told her daughter about their medical problems - she doesn't even tell her dd that she's seen them in appointments.

It's called confidentiality.

@SilverHawk

Er, you're not in SE London are you? I think that a certain CCG's next-level exertion of pressure to have prescriptions sent electronically has had some surgeries behave... a shade less than ethically

Clearly I can only go from what several people have said, but either there's been a mysterious simultaneous computer error OR a quite remarkable series of mistakes made ("oops, accidentally signed another patient up for a service they've never enquiried about, much less requested") OR it's been done deliberately to increase the number of people signed up for electronic prescriptions.

This is the poster - sad that it is even needed.

And for info...

I'm not sure I understand the issue? If you don't want the pharmacy to see what you have been prescribed then how are you ever going to pick up your medication? My repeats go straight to my local pharmacy which makes things so much easier as I don't have to sit and wait around for it. My pharmacy requested my permission to be my nominated pharmacy.

The issue is that the OP wants to choose her pharmacy, not have it chosen for her...

JustPotteringAround thank you for posting the poster about Pnharmacy2u unfortunately it cant (well at least on my screen) be enlarged big enough for the part where it mentions they were fined by the ICO for selling patient data of course if any one is interested in this information here is a link www.gponline.com/bma-calls-jail-sentences-pharmacy-found-sold-nhs-patient-data/article/1369293

Mistakes happen, it’s a simple mistake. It’s not illegal, just inconvenient. They haven’t divulged your medical details to anyone who is going to spread it around, Pharmacy staff are confidentiality bound just like GP Surgery staff. Fuss over nothing.

LadyPenelope68 - it’s an information governance breach, the problem is that nobody is ever willing to report their GP to the ICO.

I'm not sure I understand the issue?
Reading the OP's posts might help

If you don’t want to use that Pharmacy you can ring them and ask them to send it to the one you want to use. It’s very easy to do, I’ve done it plenty of times. They can also remove the nomination, the dr doesn’t need to do it.

madamginger - by this time there has been an IG breach. Are we supposed to just ignore it?

I understand where you are coming from OP, if I knew someone working in a particular pharmacy who I didn't want knowing about certain medicines I needed I would be very unhappy if my prescription was sent there, especially against my instructions. I don't know if what was done is illegal, there might be a medical or law professional out there who does know though.

Recently I had a phone call with a practise nurse at our local surgery regarding my son (on speaker phone with him too so he was involved). The result of the phone call meant the nurse was going to have a doctor prescribe something for DS to use before going in for an appointment. Nurse asked if we wanted to pick the prescription up from the surgery or have it sent to the pharmacy.

As the surgery is closer to home than the pharmacies and I go past the surgery 4 times a day on the school run we opted to get it from there, then I could go to a pharmacy of my choosing, or DH could have gone to one in the town he works in during a break time.

Nurse said they'd check if there were dressings at reception, if not they'd have one prescribed as well. Went to pick the prescription up and it had gone to a pharmacy! I have badly damaged my foot and would have found it impossible to walk to the pharmacy at the time, thankfully it was DHs day off so we were driving everywhere (had my own doctors appt and was sent for an x-ray the same day).

I wasn't thinking clearly because of my pain and the effects of strong painkillers so didn't ask if the dressing was on the prescription or there was one at the surgery for us. (Would have looked at the prescription and realised if it was there or not.) Went to pharmacy for prescription, thankfully dressing was on there too, otherwise would have had to of picked one up from surgery or had another prescription sorted.

It wasn't the end of the world in this instance, mainly inconvenient, but if I wanted to use or avoid particular pharmacies for different prescriptions I would not be happy if they were sent to the wrong place. Also just realised DS could have gone for the prescription himself, he might not have known what to do if no prescription at surgery, might have come home and had to go into town, wasting time - would have been inconvenient again.

This happened to me. Physical Script ended up being delivered to pharmacy in error.
More bothered about being kept waiting whilst they searched and printed new script.

My surgery sends ds1's prescription through to the pharmacy next door to then every month, despite me writing on the repeat form every month "please do not send to pharmacy, I will collect from reception". The pharmacy they send it to opens at 8.30 and closes at 5.30, and is shut on Saturdays. To collect medicine from there I either have to be late for work or leave work early. It's so frustrating.

Data breaches matter.

Doctors really shouldn't be getting this sort of thing right.

Yes, mistakes happen. But when handling personal data, they damned well shouldn't and mistakes need to be pointed out and rectified (and in some cases recompensed).

If the surgery cannot manage its data securely, which includes nit sending patients names and medicine details to unauthorised third parties, then it needs to switch to a system which it can manage.

There has been a lot in the news recently about the transmission of data from one company to another, and then loss of control of it. This is the same paradigm, and it simply does not matter why someone does not want their data passed to another body, unless they have authorise it, it must not happen.

And yes, it can be a crime. information Commisioners Office would be the place to escalate a data protection breach to, if you did not get a satisfactory answer from the person or organisation believed breached your privacy by misusing your data.

I think it's a big deal. My surgery doesn't post when requested to. Does post when requested not to. DD has some complex meds and I like to collect from surgery because they make errors.

Surgeries just do not understand the pressures of commuting and full time work. I am away from my home town at 7am and not back until after 8pm usually.

The errors would be more acceptable if our practice answers the phone faster than 20 mins.

Have decided that will in future make a dr's apt for prescriptions. Takes ten mins rather than the usual hour involved in sorting out a cocked up repeat request.

My prescriptions are very routine for an underlying conditions thyroid and osteoporosis so thyroxine and adcal. Pre 28 day prescribing both cd have been prescribed annually - long shelf lives. But hey, not my fault this now has to be done four times a year - so not unreasonable to expect surgeries to get it right.

And last time they posted me prescriptions I got them for three other people too. So much for confidentiality.

OP I could have written this post and yes it is beyond annoying! It's happened to me more than once and I have never authorised electronic prescriptions, I write "collect at surgery desk" and highlight it on the request and still it ends up at one of 3 pharmacies or alternate surgery.

A relative who works in data protection compliance informs me this is actually illegal as it breaches the data protection act, and will become even more so when the law changes soon.

Might be worth writing to the practice manager and asking how they intend to amend their systems to comply with legislation!

We tried out that Pilltime thing a few months ago and it was horrendous so went back to having it send to our pharmacy of choice. I went to pick up a prescription a couple of months ago and it wasn't in. I desperately needed it and it had been the 48 hours they need to process it. No sign of it at all. On further investigation it had gone to Pilltime and would be another few working days - I was livid! You don't mess around with medication. That's more to do with the inconvenience of it not being where it should be rather than the illegal/breaching data protection thing. I was just annoyed that I needed it and it wasn't there!

I am aghast at PP who can't understand why this is such a big deal. I suspect they've never faced a situation where they desperately need a medication, go and collect it and it's not there, and if you then can't get to the chemist due to transport or opening hours you face a delay in taking urgent necessary medication. Which can lead to all sorts of nasty side effects, from acute withdrawal to potentially life threatening complications, or mental health crises.

It's simply not good enough for an organisation whose bread and butter is dealing with sensitive medical information and the provision of treatment to fuck this up, yes human error may lead to it occurring once but any more than that is extremely concerning.

If you can't get your medication OP, often a chemist like Boots will prescribe you a one off dose until you can get the prescription, though you have to pay cost. You can also go to a walk in, emergency GP or hospital if it's serious.

Op YANBU I understand how frustrating it can be.

My gp surgery sent my prescription to a pharmacy 200 miles away then stated I’d obviously moved, which I hadn’t

But I recieved no apology and they advised me they weren’t sure they wouldn’t be able to do me the prescription again!

Funnily enough That’s the least of it!

I would place a complaint in, op!

The other thing to consider for repeat prescription requests is that pharmacies get paid lots of money for dispensing. GP practices are paid contractually whether you collect from them or the pharmacy. The pharmacy only gets paid when they dispense.
I have heard of some pharmacies "signing up" patient's without their knowledge.

Thank you to all of you that have actually read what I posted and many more thanks to those who added information.
I realised something was wrong but I had no idea about IG or that this was happening in other areas. I still suspect the pharmacy/surgery link but not sure if it's a push or pull.

I email my pharmacy with exactly what I need. Some of my meds are variable dose.
Every single time the surgery gets it wrong. I end up with the wrong strengths/quantities/wrong tablets. It is so frustrating. The pharmacist swears they only order what I have requested but whoever processes the request at the surgery just ticks everything on the repeat list. I daren't change the repeat list because running out of meds would actually be life threatening. I gave the pharmacy back 4 boxes of medication this week. I hadn't asked for them. It is so wasteful.

I had this
Repeat prescription requested at gp
Then had random text telling me that prescription was ready at x pharmacy
No one asked my permission/ if I wanted this chemist
It just magically happened

Turned out ok in the end but I was really surprised I wasn’t involved in the decision