in thinking that pharmacists should check the prescription before handing you the medicine?

[DaffoDeffo]

I have had my inhalers changed as my asthma as got worse. Luckily for me I know exactly what each inhaler looks like and I know what the pills look like as I've had them several times.

I went and picked up my prescription and didn't open it till I got home. I had 2 inhalers plus pills and the chemist (I don't want to name them but a big chain) had got every item wrong. The 2 inhalers they had given me were completely the wrong dose (far lower than I had been prescribed) and the pills were the wrong ones.

Tbh I am not sure I would have checked thoroughly (the dose for example) if it wasn't for the fact that I'm familiar with what these medicines look like.

My children are both asthmatic and pick up their own prescriptions and tbh I'm not sure they would know on sight that their medication was wrong. It also makes me worry for my elderly relatives who I also think probably don't check their items against the prescription.

Is it asking too much that they actually bloody check what they hand over to you?

Is this a common thing that they get this sort of thing wrong?

Shocking as it may seem, that wasn't my main worry about wastage.

So you complain to your MP whenever other businesses wastes one of their products?! Do you complain to your MP if your neighbour wastes something too? Why is it something an MP would get involved in and why is it your business?

Ffs Dungeondragon15 🙄

Reading this makes me glad I go to my local pharmacy where they are attached to my gps practice and know many of their customers. Support local (if you can) .

I stopped using the independent pharmacy attached to our GP practice as our orders were either incorrect or 'lost'.

I had an interesting one a couple of weeks ago, not an error with a pharmacy but with a GP and a repeat prescription for my son. I'd emailed the request through with his name, address, DOB and NHS number at the top of the request and his requirements below. When I collected the prescription from the surgery it was made out in my name. I showed the receptionist the email on my phone and she couldn't work out why the GP had ignored the personal details within the body of the email, she must've just seen my name as the email sender and looked at what was needed BUT by doing that she'd prescribed a medication for me that I don't use.

Yanbu. When I worked in the pharmacy they were dispensed and checked by 2 different people and then we would ask the customer to check as well.

Ffs Dungeondragon15

I would say that about people who write to their MP every time a private business accidentally wastes some of their own stock. What do you expect your MP to do about it?!

9 times out of 10 there is an error.
Yes of course there is 🙄🤔 It's a wonder everybody is not dead yet.

I agree with Dungeon
It's the pharmacy who pays for the mistake, not the NHS, so I have no idea why you'd complain to your MP.

So much misinformation on this thread. For one thing there is not a shortage of pharmacists. There are more than ever before qualifying every year. The entry requirements have dropped so much so that universities can make more money.

The drugs have to be disposed of because you have no idea if somebody has gone home and put the bag by a radiator. Or into a filthy, smoke-filled house. I know I wouldn't be happy receiving meds that had been returned.

I gave up using Boots after they told me that a medication I was prescribed had been "discontinued". When I got home, I checked online and I could find nothing that said this.

I rang my local independent pharmacy and was told that it hadn't been discontinued, but that Boots no longer had it on the list of products that they stocked. The independent pharmacy was able to get it later that day. I've used them ever since (18 years, at least) and have never had any problems with prescriptions.

Boots also told me that hydrogen peroxide had been discontinued, when they had stopped stocking it.

It's the pharmacy who pays for the mistake, not the NHS, so I have no idea why you'd complain to your MP.

You can't be certain about that. I once got a wrong item in my usual monthly meds. When I took it back to ask for the right item, they produced another prescription form for me to sign with just the right item on it (medical exemption certificate), so presumably they'd be claiming for it, after already having claimed for the same item which they wrongly dispensed. According to the paperwork I signed - they'd be paid by the NHS for the wrong item and also the right item.

Well lots of contractors rip off the NHS, intentionally or otherwise. That’s not really the point.

Well Kazzy, do you want them to reuse the meds or not?
The rule is there to protect people so no idea why people are moaning about it and now you're moaning that some don't reuse them

The rule is there to protect people so no idea why people are moaning about it and now you're moaning that some don't reuse them

No I'm not moaning about them not being reused. I was replying to someone who said it doesn't cost the NHS anything. Did you not read the quote I included in my post??

Yes, because it was my quote!

This is why I left community pharmacy and went into hospital pharmacy. The number of mistakes I saw in the three months I worked for a big chain pharmacy was scary. They had me checking pharmacist dispensing from the first day having never worked in a pharmacy before. In hospitals it takes a lot longer to get a prescription ready because three separate people have to have eyes on it before it is released (screening pharmacist/dispenser/checking pharmacist or technician). On the high street pharmacists and tech are put under crazy pressure to get things out as quickly as possible and give stupid waiting time (we were told we had to tell patients it was going to be 5 minutes even if that was an impossible target).

I used to be on weekly prescriptions for a particular drug while having a particularly bad time, out of my GP's fear that was at risk of taking and OD. It was liquid, so often came as a small amount in a larger bottle, so I didn't think anything of the size of the pack when I went to pick them up, only to realise they had actually given me three month's worth (at the dose I was supposed to take) instead of a week's.

Pharmacy was extremely apologetic of course, and even sent someone to my house with the correct dose, and to collect the full bottle I had. Now, I actually didn't have any urges to OD, so no worries for me, but it was quite worrying, given my GP's specific worries.

Oh and everything you get from from a prescription prescription (unless it's from a private doctor/hospital) is reimbursed by the NHS. The money you pay for the prescription if you pays goes to the NHS as well but often the cost of the drugs is more. All pharmacies have to monitor temperature in their medicine storage areas so if anything leaves the premises it has to be thrown away, which is essentially a necessary waste of NHS money.

Thank you for the informative reply oppsdaisies.

Reimbursed as you say. They are paid for the items they dispense. They are also paid a fee for their NHS contract.

Anything else is part of their business model, be that boots, Llyod, Sainsbury etc

So much misinformation on this thread. For one thing there is not a shortage of pharmacists. There are more than ever before qualifying every year. The entry requirements have dropped so much so that universities can make more money.

Fewer people are applying so there could be a drop in the future. The universities don't have the freedom to drop standards to whatever they like to get more money as they have to be accredited by the regulatory body. Also the rate limiting step is preregistration places not degrees. It doesn't matter if more people get a pharmacy degree. If they don't get a preregistration place afterwards they won't become pharmacists.

You can't be certain about that. I once got a wrong item in my usual monthly meds. When I took it back to ask for the right item, they produced another prescription form for me to sign with just the right item on it (medical exemption certificate), so presumably they'd be claiming for it, after already having claimed for the same item which they wrongly dispensed.

They can't as for another prescription if they made the mistake as that would go down on your medical records that you had received two lots of the medicine which could cause problems. The fact that they got you to apply for another prescription suggest the prescription was wrong in the first place i.e. the GP surgery made the mistake not the pharmacy.

I always check the packet in the shop. Once I found they’d given me the wrong brand - which I’m allergic to and it’s written in my notes. Anyway I refused to accept them and was told they would now have to be destroyed as they’d already been dispensed. I had only opened the bag and not even left the shop. What a waste!

Iv had Few wrong ones.
They tried to give me a diff brand even though i had an expensive brand listed ( they said it wasn't and gave me a generic, i saw the prescription)
Gp had to give me anotger prescription for me to fill elsewhere.
They gave me someone else’s prescription then said i must have been mistaken

They can't as for another prescription if they made the mistake as that would go down on your medical records that you had received two lots of the medicine which could cause problems. The fact that they got you to apply for another prescription suggest the prescription was wrong in the first place i.e. the GP surgery made the mistake not the pharmacy.

They did - it was a pharmacy within the GP surgery (owned by the partner GPs - a nice little earner for them!). They don't need a GP to sign a prescription before it's dispensed - they can print off prescriptions from the GPs repeat prescription system. So, yes, it would have been down on the GP system as a second prescription - on the forms it shows the usage compared with the pre-approval, i.e. it shows "2/6" etc - for the few months afterwards, it's was out of synch, i.e. when others showed 3/6, it was one different. So, yes, all the signs are there that they just did another prescription and claimed off the NHS for the second dispense. With it being "in house", the GPs are in the position to do that, thus the NHS paying for their mistake instead of themselves (i.e. their own pharmacy).