Dispenser refused to give me my medication? Is this allowed?

[elc19]

Today, I went to the chemist to pick up my repeat prescription which I need as it contains my strong antihistamines as I have chronic angiodema. Also on that prescription is some painkillers for my endometriosis.

I always collect them a few days before I run out, the dr issued then electronically a week ago. I called to ask if I'm able to collect today (pharmacy on the side of my drs) as I didn't want to go if it was busy with urgent prescriptions being issued, the receptionist said of course you can, the queue was short and all priority patients had been dealt with.

Upon arrival, the female dispenser said “No (my name) next week” I asked what she meant and she said “no next week” again.

She turned her back to me and was shaking her head and talking to the pharmacist about me whilst I explained to the female assistant that I always had these tablets and I always collected them a few day’s before I was due to run out.

I asked why again to the female assistant and she said they had been sent somewhere else. I asked why this had happened as I always collected them there and she couldn’t answer me.

The female assistant asked me if I had anyone who could pick them up next week, I explained no, my husband is a key worker working 12-14 hours a day. She then said “are you sure?” as if I was lying, by this point I was completely horrified and in shock by how I had been treated.

They dispensed my pain relief medicine and she gave me my prescriptions to collect elsewhere.

I am currently recovering from my 9th miscarriage, surgery and I’m bleeding very heavily. I had to drive to a different pharmacy and wait 20 minutes, by the time I was walking back to my car after finally getting my medication, I had bled through my clothes, I was in tears through embarrassment trying to stop blood from dripping down my legs and on to the pavement.

I feel like I've been treated unfairly, would you complain to their complaints department about this?

I really feel for you op, I’m sorry for your loss. This lady sounds as though she was rude to you regardless of what was happening and imagine it was the last thing you needed. An explanation was all that was needed. I don’t understand the way this thread has gone, how can anyone think they completely know what happened and it was the op in the wrong.

@QuestionMarkNow

• People don't want to leave their home so the delivery requests have increased tenfold.

• People are stock piling medicines so they don't have to go out.

• The GPs are taking essential appointments only and everybody else if being referred to the pharmacy for advice.

HTH.

If she gave you your pc back, perhaps they weren’t in stock.

Btw I can’t understand why pharmacists are so busy.
I mean they aren’t doing any more work they normally do. People who do have the virus are told to stay at home and there is no treatment bar paracetamol. The ines who are really ill are in hospital.

So why the sudden ‘oh we can’t cope and you’ll have to wait?’. And why that sort of attitude and NO EXPLANATION. No one is a mid reader or will know what the heck is going in with chemists. (I certainly don’t)

Think about it logically: it's not difficult.

1. People are doing the equivalent of panic buying their medicines. They're worried they won't be able to get them while in lockdown so ordering sooner than they're due

2. Asthmatics/COPD patients are over-ordering and hoarding inhalers. In fact pharmacies have run out of certain inhalers and there is now a shortage. It doesn't take much imagination to think that this mentality extends to other high -risk medical conditions.

3. Most surgeries are suddenly (in some places overnight)enforcing the electronic prescription service only , in order to eliminate paper and people going into the surgery unecessarily. Think about it: People wander into their surgery (unnecessary contact when electronic prescriptions exist) to pick up a piece of paper (a prescription) to wander into the pharmacy with. The potentially contaminated piece of paper gets handed to the counter assistant, then to the dispenser, then to the pharmacist. These people don't get breaks, so will spend hours handling these slips of paper. What are the chances of not touching your face in a ten hour shift? Anyway, I digress: prescriptions are now being sent instantly to pharmacies, when they previously would have taken 1-2 days, and patients are turning up straightaway thinking their Rx will be ready.

4. staff going down with covid symptoms and so they're short-staffed? See previous point re handing hundreds of potentially contaminated bits of papers (aka prescriptions) every day.

Watch sky news today for their piece on pharmacists. Community pharmacists' jobs are extremely stressful before adding a global pandemic into the mix.

Yes, they can refuse to give you the medication.

OP There are no circumstances in which it's necessary or justified for a pharmacist to treat you like that, no matter how busy they are.

I'm very sorry you had that experience, and yes, I do think you should complain, and that you should bring it to the attention of your GP.

I hope you're feeling a little better.

5. People self-isolating are asking for deliveries, so their delivery services are at breaking point. It's not just people in the shop waiting for service...there will be lines of prescriptions that need checking that are going out for delivery. You might be the only person in the shop but they may have ten prescriptions that need checking so that the delivery driver can get out and back before his scheduled clocking off time. By the way, do you know pharmacies don't get paid for deliveries, so they do it for free and often at a loss?

6. GPs are barely seeing anyone face to face, so the pharmacists have hundreds of people asking them for advice on illnesses. The doctor's are minimising exposure, but pharmacists have no choice and have to see anybody who presents. No doubt they will have seen lots of covid-19. No telephone screening in the pharmacy, is there? They don't get paid for this, by the way

There is never an excuse for rudeness and once this is over I would put in a complaint if you think that will achieve anything, at the very least the team can learn from it. I hope you did get your medication in the end. Yanbu at all!

As for QuestionMarkNow comments. How rude are you? In our area Gps are no longer having face to face appointments with patients due to the risk of covid 19 instead they are doing telephone appointments and then passing wads of prescriptions to the chemist next door. People are over ordering their medication and gps are facilitating this where patients are being told to isolate for 12 weeks. The same patients who are being told not to come to the surgery are then walking into the chemist ( exposing our staff to the virus but hey that is ok because it is medication not chocolate they want) expecting their prescription to be ready having been told by the gp surgery that a prescription was handed on to the chemist. They often incorrectly think that means it is ready to collect. If doesn't, it might not have been labelled, the chemist might not have the stock in, there may be a manufacturer shortage etc. Normally prescriptions would be handed to patients so that they can take them wherever they choose so workload is spread out between a number of chemists. Currently where I am this is not happening and chemist next to a surgery are being given these walk in prescriptions on top of their regular patients who are expecting medication not due for 3 months because they don't want to leave the house. What they and you fail to understand is that pharmacies are not staffed at full capacity at the moment as staff are having to take unpaid leave for childcare, may have to isolate as displaying symptoms or a family member has symptoms. We come to work knowingly putting ourselves at risk so people get their medication, we are doing extra hours and cancelling annual leave to achieve this. Some understanding and appreciation wouldn't go amiss. I put myself and my family at risk everytime I go to work and having to listen to someone like you belittling my profession is galling!

@QuestionMarkNow
Just tagging you because you said you wanted to be educated. Please read the previous posts

I would complain OP. Sounds like she’s just a rude person full stop and needs pulled up on this. No need for her rudeness at all.
The only explanation I can think of for the way this thread has gone, is that the posters who are sticking up for this rude person are also rude.

don't know why you assume the "poor lady" was shouted at. I never raised by voice or was rude in any way, she was rude to me for absolutely no reason.

Never said poor lady, never said you shouted at her I said the poor woman has to deal with people yelling at her-at no time did I even think, nor suggest, you had done so. I assume you are misquoting another poster.

I just asked if a dispenser can refuse to give medication that they had a prescription for, signed by a dr.

You said she spoke to a pharmacist, they CAN absolutely refuse a prescription signed by a dr. That isn’t what your post was about, it was about how the dispensing assistant had been so rude and wrong.

A lot of the staff at pharmacies I have been to over the last couple of weeks have looked exhausted, staying till very late to sort medications out

When she said the prescription had been sent elsewhere she may have meant it had been sent to the dispensing support pharmacy, this is where all the information from prescriptions is entered into the system and then two days later the medication arrives bagged up with that patient’s name on it, it is used to free up pharmacist’s time to have more consultations with patient’s so when she said the prescription was there she may have meant the actual form but they may not have had the items in stock in the store. No excuse for being so abrupt with you though.
As for the person who can’t understand why pharmacies are any busier please come and work a day in my life, i’ve been working over night preparing hundreds of prescriptions for people that are requesting early, requesting every medication they have ever had and anyone that has ever had an inhaled in their life is also requesting it.
Then i am also working during the day where the queue goes past the car park and up the street, people actually kick the door and shout at us when we’re closed, the phone rings off the hook with people wanting delivery and we get no thanks at all for what we do hope that explains it for you.

Yes, complain about her. Make sure she's educated about her rudeness, That will teach her. I know I'm being facetious but I don't think anyone is grasping just how hard it is for these small pharmacists to deal with the workload they're facing. To the poster who seems to think that they're just doing what they normally do, I mean just think outside the box here. They are being asked about everything and learning as they go. The amount of requests for inhalers is unprecedented and unwarranted. The extra meds people want, the just in case wants, No one needs their medication early. You get it on the day it's due. Otherwise we will run out.

There must've been a good reason why it was not handed out so I would ask to speak to the pharmacist for an explanation if it has bothered you so much. It would've been a lot easier for the dispenser to just give you the bag and get on to the next patient but she didn't do there would have been a good reason for that.

Also someone above mentioned their GP recommended the Well app - they shouldn't be doing this as a doctor is not allowed to direct prescriptions to any particular pharmacy.

Why is everybody talking about pharmacists being abused? I don't agree with that, I don't agree with abuse full stop. Let alone at a time like this.

The pharmacist didn't refuse, in fact he said nothing and carried on talking to an elderly lady about her medication whilst bagging it up whilst the dispenser was muttering about me whilst shaking her head after I had done nothing to her other than ask why I wasn't entitled to have my medication when it was there.

I didn't "over order" my medication. I was just getting it as I usually do. I always have it at least 2/3 days early because sometimes I need to take more depending on what my body is doing.

I won't comment anymore. Thanks to everyone for your kind words and I really hope the ones who had nothing nice to say don't experience such a horrible way to be spoken to by somebody who is meant to work with customers.

Name changed.
Pharmacies are busy because:
1.Pharmacy staff are going down with Covid 19 in quite high numbers because people with coughs are still going into pharmacies for advice despite the notices and advice telling them not to do so. They are not getting PPE, yet at as high a risk as GPs or A&E staff.
2.People are ordering scripts early- paricularly those with chronic conditions . Its like the build up to Christmas on steroids.

1. Scripts get doubled or tripled in quantites with no warning, and the stocks are not available from the wholesalers. I guess they are supplying part scripts - so 3 people get 1 month's supply for now, rather than 1 person getting 3 months. Its more work as you then have to supply the rest but shares limited stocks around.
2. People can't get appointments with GPs or get through to 111 so are visitng pharmacies for other conditions.
3. I have heard that the rapid transfer to electronic scripts, from those practices not on it already, is chaotic- scripts going to the wrong pharmacy, and people are expecting instant availability.

I went to get my husband's meds from the pharmacy I used to manage. Their pharmacist has Covid, and the company has stuggled to get locums to cover her. ( When I worked there we had 2 pharmacists at busy times, but now only 1 due to funding issues) On occasions they haven't been able to open until 11am. The technicians and other staff have had serious abuse.
TBH, the lack of PPI, the rudeness of patients and customers and posts like some of those above make me reluctant to go back to working in a pharmacy despite being re-registered for the duration of the pandemic. Pharmacies are usually the end point of a consultation process, you've waited to see the GP or hospital doctor, possibly waited for investigation and then there is a problem with a script and it all gets too much and the pharmacy staff get the blame. It has always been thus, however in recent times some pharmacists have had to call the police due to threats from customers.

SimonJT Dp also type 1 diabetic has exactly the same issues getting his insulin

This isn’t a recent problem it has been going on for years.

This has nothing to do with Covid. 19.

If it was because of this virus the pharmacies have turned to rubbish what was their excuse before now.

I despair of people suggesting that you write or email to complain.

You must all be living in a parallel universe. Who is going to read or respond to that email or letter?

Let’s take a pharmacist away from dispensing to deal with a minor complaint about themselves. That is if the complaint even reaches them as support staff are thin on the ground in many businesses. And whilst the pharmacist is completing an investigation and responding to the complaint they won’t be able to dispense, give advice or order stock.

These are not normal times. We all need to think responsibly.

Problem is many are ordering them early and they are run off their feet.

Problem is, I didn’t order mine early, as they kept saying not to, and by the time I did order it I was told it takes 7-10 days to be processed and filled and I’m going to run out.

I will be ordering it early next time.

we are in an unprecedented situation- we cant expect to do what we have always done

When I order my meds, I always get them in a few days early. Missing a medication can have other impacts for many people.

My Gp agreed this week to let me order every 2 months. Does this mean now in two months time, I will be the request in, it gets sent to the pharmacist and they can say, no. Come back on Monday. Yea I know you will run out on Sunday, but meh, come back on Monday?

I got sick of rude pharmacy staff so I signed up with RXLive. They are brilliant. Meds are delivered by Royal Mail with an ice pack to keep the Insulin cool. Best thing I ever did.

My Gp agreed this week to let me order every 2 months

I'm worried about this too - my GP only issues 2 month repeats with the exception of opiates.

Complain and explain what happened to you as a result. If she is often like this the pharmacy needs to know. It's unacceptable to treat vulnerable people like this. I am so sorry for your miscarriages