Pharmacy Jobsworth or Normal?

[bangheadhere40]

I would like opinions on this please as I've not had this in a pharmacy before.

I took time out of work today to go and pick up a prescription from the pharmacy for my husband. It was ordered online and had been signed by a doctor, all good.

When I went the lady in the pharmacy said she wasn't going to give it out as it is too early to order it again on repeat. I explained that the doctor had signed it off and she had the signed prescription ( she doesn't know my husbands medical needs). She said no she wasn't going to give me it for him and she is sending it back to the doctor and to try in a few days.

Is this normal? I always thought if the doctor had signed it then it's good to go!

I have had a pharmacy nazi before too. I had to use a chemist I have never used before or will never use again. I was prescribed a prescription from our local hospital. I was for painkillers. I had broken my foot and hobbled across on crutches to collect it and she told me I did not need those and should instead take paracetamol. I told her the consultant had prescribed these for me and I wanted them and she refused. I had to phone hospital and get them to ring chemist before she would grudgingly agree to give them to me. She kept mumbling about patients being addicted to painkillers but I had only been prescribed enough for 5 days and then I was to go to my GP.

You are so utterly convinced you are NBU. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@caringcarer - that is even worse than my story! How can they possibly do this? the hospital issued them so thought you needed them. It's really not up-to them to tell people to use lower doses is it ( or just paracetamol in your case).

You are so utterly convinced you are NBU 🤷🏻‍♀️

Threads like this just make my jaw drop

I'm obviously not being unreasonable though am I - as she has been told by the Dr she has to give the meds out now.

You'll need an accredited Masters degree in pharmacy, a year's pre-registration training and the skills and knowledge to pass a registration assessment to work as a community pharmacist

Responsibilities
As a community pharmacist, you'll need to:
• dispense prescription medicines to the public
• ensure that different treatments are compatible
• check dosage and ensure that medicines are correctly and safely supplied and labelled (pharmacists are legally responsible for any dispensing errors)
• supervise the preparation of any medicines (not all are supplied ready made-up by the manufacturer)
• keep a register of controlled drugs for legal and stock control purposes
• liaise with doctors about prescriptions
• sell over-the-counter medicines
• advise the public on the treatment of minor ailments
• advise patients of any adverse side-effects of medicines or potential interactions with other medicines/treatments
• prepare dosette and cassette boxes, usually for the elderly, but also for those with memory/learning difficulties or who have several combinations of tablets to take, where tablets are placed in compartments for specified days of the week
• undertake Medicine Use Reviews (MUR), an advanced service to help patients understand how their medicines work and why they have to take them
• provide support through the New Medicine Service (NMS) to patients starting certain medicines to treat long-term conditions (England only)
• manage a needle and syringe exchange
• measure and fit compression hosiery
• offer specialist health checks, such as blood pressure and cholesterol monitoring and diabetes screening
• run stop-smoking clinics and weight-reduction programmes
• arrange the delivery of prescription medicines to patients
• manage, supervise and train pharmacy support staff
• manage finance and budgets
• keep up to date with current pharmacy practice, new drugs and their uses
• provide the range of services listed on the NHS website.

I'm obviously not being unreasonable though am I -

Yes; I think you are/were. Your complaint was about the pharmacist not dispensing medication that your DH was not yet due. So entirely justified within her remit.

as she has been told by the Dr she has to give the meds out now.

This is not how things work. The pharmacist may have spoken to the doctor and agreed to dispense the medication based on that conversation, but the GP isn't the pharmacists boss and cannot 'tell' them they have to do or dispense anything.

In this case it wouldn’t happen though- the point being the script has been repeated too early. The patient should have medication to see them past the next repeat date if they are taking them correctly.

I've had instances though where I've been on a variable dose of a drug, or have been to outpatients and the consultant has told me to increase the dose and so have got through my current prescription quicker than I should have. So, it could happen that the GP is aware of it and has reissued correctly but the pharmacist has decided that they just won't dispense, without forewarning the patient or checking with the GP.

Why isn't the pharmacist compelled to sort the problem out with the GP rather than just passing it back to the patient for them to try and sort out?

I have no issue with the pharmacist having refused to dispense initially - I know that they are highly trained professionals with the consequent responsibility and liability.

I do however have an issue with this one not making any effort to check/communicate/discuss with the doctor, making their own decision as to what was required and still leaving the prescription as supposedly dispensed.

whats weird about this thread is despite the OP acknowledging that she wasn't aware about the regulatory framework for pharmacists and that dispensing medication is their responsibility (and they are accountable for that) not that of the GP.... She is still taking a zealot like approach to proving her unreasonableness and insisting on a hierarchy that doesn't exist

My point is just what PrettyBird has said:
I have no issue with the pharmacist having refused to dispense initially - I know that they are highly trained professionals with the consequent responsibility and liability.

I do however have an issue with this one not making any effort to check/communicate/discuss with the doctor, making their own decision as to what was required and still leaving the prescription as supposedly dispensed. hmm

I think I’ve explained the pharmacist position on here about 20 times, I swear people can’t read!! The OP is convinced she’s right and will not listen to reason from people who actually work in a Pharmacy.

and to be honest yes I would trust the GP who has my entire medical history in front of them to decide what medication I can and can't have, not a pharmacist I have never met before, in the grand hierarchy of things.

@JenniR29 - if it were you then would you just refuse it or would you do the sensible approach and check with the GP?

Why isn't the pharmacist compelled to sort the problem out with the GP rather than just passing it back to the patient for them to try and sort out*

Because the pharmacist (and often there is only one in a community pharmacy) has 250 other jobs to do. The patient is focussed on their one thing - getting their medication.

There is also no magic phone line. The pharmacist often has to go through the same phone system as the patient - "you are number 17 in the queue" is a bit of a waste of time when they should be dispensing to the next 20 people in the queue - (some in the shop, some in the virtual "back room queue" - in our pharmacy for every actual person there are 5 more being dealt with behind the scenes) - and need to concentrate on each job individually.

By that logic Jenni a pharmacist never needs to talk to a GP to ask why he or she has written a script for a particular medication or for how much

It might be because the doctor has actually talked to the patient strange concept that, communicating with a real person and knows (eg) that they are going to be away on business/holiday, hence the need for an early script.

Easily found out by talking and not taking a unilateral decision with no further communication (as in this case).

@bangheadhere40 I said it earlier and I said it again, unless you actually spoke to the pharmacist involved (I’ve no indication from your posts that you did) then you don’t know who they spoke to or what they did.

The pharmacist could have verbally arranged to withhold the prescription with one doctor, the dispenser could have called and arranged it to be issued with a different one. The original pharmacist could have left a note saying the prescription was to be withheld following this call, a note does not necessarily mean that she personally has decided to withhold it.

She also might have been awaiting a call back from the doctor before issuing (you can wait up to 48 hours to hear back from a doctor sometimes).

Now please accept when I tell you that a pharmacist can dispense whatever they deem professionally suitable and do not have to answer to any doctor.

@BeyondMyWits Exactly!!! I swear some patients think they are the only person who exists. I can sort out problems but often it takes time and I certainly don’t do it on my lunch break!!

But it has also been said that a pharmacist doesn't need to do what a doctor says as the doctor is not their boss and in fact pharmacists are more expert and drugs and their interactions than doctors (which I agree with: I have both doctor and pharmacist friends). But by that logic, what is the point of the patient going back and taking it up with their GP because pharmacists don't have time to do so ?

@prettybird No, we don’t. Often overworked and understaffed.

I understand that - but then you can't complain that a doctor "tells" you what to do - if you're not prepared to talk to them

It always surprises me how little people know about general practice. Have you ever noticed your GP tapping away on a computer while talking to you? They're often looking up your ailment and how to treat it. They can't possibly know it, they know the most common ailments and then specialists are in place to deal with the rest.

Because the pharmacist (and often there is only one in a community pharmacy) has 250 other jobs to do. The patient is focussed on their one thing - getting their medication.

Err, no. Often times the patient also has to do 250 other jobs too - go to work, care for a family, maintain relationships, engage with other treatments, struggle with whatever medical condition necessitates the prescription in the first place. I've had situations where there's been an issue between the Dr and the pharmacy and I've been sent backwards and forwards conveying messages like a go between. Obviously, I couldn't speak to the Dr so had to leave a message with the receptionist, then go back for the reply, then take it to pharmacy, which raised another query, so back I went again. Only when I complained to the practice manager did the gp ring the pharmacy and sort out whatever professional differences they were having. That isn't the responsibility of the patient - to have to mediate between 2 professionals.