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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect to be able to leave meds at a chemist for several weeks?

129 replies

Letmeoff · 12/09/2020 03:05

If press rate valid for several months, if the doctor sends direct to pharmacy why can you not leave them for a while? With the way life is and the fact the chemist allows 1 person a time and the queue is always long, I did not pick up my prescribed meds for six or seven weeks. I received a couple of tests- the latest last week saying they were ready. When I wenot to get them they said they’ve put them back on the shelf. So I’m without meds for a few days while I wait for doc to reissue prescription and send to chemist. But now I’ve had time to think - if prescriptions are valid for months why couldn’t they just refill the prescription and give it to me? Why do I need to get a new one - aibu expecting you be able to pick up after weeks 🤔

OP posts:
Original poster
Letmeoff · 12/09/2020 03:07

Press rate valid 🤦🏻‍♀️🙄. Prescriptions are valid

OP posts:
Notapheasantplucker · 12/09/2020 03:10

I think YABU.

6-7 weeks is a bit of a joke. Imagine if everyone had the same approach as you, they'd have no room left to store everyone's meds which they haven't picked up as well as all of the new prescriptions.

I think YABU to complain that your out of meds for a few days also, considering you didn't bother to pick them up for nearly 2 months.

Wingedharpy · 12/09/2020 03:11

You could have died in the meantime though.
How is the Pharmacy supposed to know why you haven't collected the meds that you, presumably, ordered?
You need a new prescription because they dispensed the previous meds but you didn't collect them.

BinkyandBunty · 12/09/2020 03:12

I think it's unreasonable to expect any business to hold something for you for so long, especially if you haven't contacted them and actually asked them to. If they did that for everyone they'd run out of space!

eatsleepread · 12/09/2020 03:14

YABU.

Grilledaubergines · 12/09/2020 03:14

Chemists aren't storage facilities.

If you can go weeks and weeks without collecting your prescription then you’ve requested it far too early or you don’t need it. Chemists remained open and you could have waited Outside to collect if there already maximum people inside.

There is probably a policy about administering medication so long after prescribed. You could have been prescribed something in the meantime which now conflicts with that medication and you were prescribed it because your GP would have assumed you’d already used your prescription.

YABU.

oceanbreezy · 12/09/2020 03:15

Just get them delivered home. Silly to think a pharmacy will keep your meds for so long. How do they have the space?

jessstan2 · 12/09/2020 03:41

You can get them delivered.

If you run out, pharmacists can issue a few tablets or whatever on account, based on previous prescriptions.

Florencex · 12/09/2020 03:43

YABU. Order then pick up. It’s not that hard.

chatwoo · 12/09/2020 03:46

YABU - if it's your medication (that's presumably vital to your well being) then take responsibility for it.

pasturesgreen · 12/09/2020 03:50

Six or seven weeks is really pushing it. If you were concerned about being without your medication you should have gone to collect it. They even texted you twice, it's not as if you had no idea.

QuestionableMouse · 12/09/2020 03:54

Yabu.

If you can't get there to pick them up, many places will deliver.

Oncemorewithfeelin · 12/09/2020 04:02

I’ve worked in pharmacies.
There is no space to keep prescriptions.
Your medication sitting unused on a bag for 6 months could be used for someone else who has been turned away as we don’t have the stock.

From memory we kept them 4 weeks( sometimes longer) before putting the stock back to shelf. The script was then filed away to then be sent back to the surgery.
Sometimes people came in and were lucky enough that we still had the prescription so would just have to wait for us to redispense the meds.
Sounds like you have came in when your medication had ran out. Sometimes then pharmacy is able to do you an emergency supply if it’s a medication you normally get.

With repeat prescriptions, they are normally ordered a week before they will be needed.
You must have had an excess amount at some point to have enabled you to go a further month without needing the medication(unless it is a use when required medication)

If this is going to be an ongoing problem see if they can deliver or think about moving your prescription to a pharmacy that is more convenient to access.

Redglitter · 12/09/2020 04:02

6 or 7 weeks is ridiculous. If you can wait that long either you really don't need the meds or youre ordering them far too early.

I feel guilty if I leave mine a week after theyre ready

TheGirlWithAPrince · 12/09/2020 04:31

Agree with others. They haven't got the space. I used to have to pick up a massive box of baby milk, 2 whole boxes that hardly fit into the car.. imagine if I didn't pick it up for 6 weeks and they were falling over it for that long along with hundreds of other prescriptions who hadn't been collected. You can either get it delivered or pick it up within a decent time frame.

SteeperThanHell · 12/09/2020 05:23

We have loads of scripts that aren’t collected and very little space to store them. Since Covid it has got much worse - at the end of last month I had over 300 prescriptions waiting for collection that had been there for more than 4 weeks. That is thousands and thousands of pounds of stock that we have paid for and cannot claim back.

Having said that when scripts are put back in to stock we do try to make contact with the patient first and we do file away until it expires - it can therefore be re-dispensed (so we have to do the work twice) if the patient ever bothers to turn up.

Only order what you need and only order it a week before you run out.

SD1978 · 12/09/2020 05:33

Sorry, but you are being unreasonable. They handle thousands of prescriptions a week, if everyone decided to pick up whenever they fancied, there is no way they would be able to keep the sheer volume of prescriptions made up and ready to go safely. A week, maybe two weeks grace would be all I'd expect. Exotically as the assumption would be that I needed the medication, and hadn't been storing several months supply at home.

TitsOutForHarambe · 12/09/2020 05:38

I used to work in a pharmacy. After 4 weeks we would put everything back because we didn't have the space to have all those prescriptions lying around (quite a few people decide to leave stuff without letting the pharmacy know, or they just forget and never pick the stuff up)

Also medications have expiry dates. The pharmacy can't claim back the money it is owed for NHS prescriptions if the patient never actually collects it.

YABU.

IHateCoronavirus · 12/09/2020 05:39

YABU. Surely you can wait the few days it takes to get another. You mustn’t be desperate for it if you can afford to wait 6-7 weeks.

CrazyDuchess · 12/09/2020 05:44

Yabu for all the reasons posted above

Aquamarine1029 · 12/09/2020 05:49

The pharmacy isn't a bloody storage unit.

ChanceChanceChance · 12/09/2020 05:58

Yabu, sorry, but lesson learned.

seayork2020 · 12/09/2020 06:08

I cant think of any reason this is a good idea

eaglejulesk · 12/09/2020 06:09

YABU - what if everyone left their meds at the chemist for several weeks? It's not a warehouse - just pick them up Confused

Disappointedkoala · 12/09/2020 06:11

YABU. You've wasted their time dispensing it the first time and there's obviously not room to store if everyone does the same thing.