Bloody repeat prescriptions?!!!

[waterjungle]

Right I need to vent!
Does anyone else have a constant nightmare getting repeat prescriptions?
I have just changed doctors as I have moved house.
Registered at new surgery, they told me to order my repeats from my old surgery to cover the time it takes to get me on their books. I go to do this only I can't as new surgery has taken over my records.
Go to new surgery, find I can't order as I am not registered in their new system. Try and register on new system only to be told via a bounce back email that I can't do that for my first repeat. My first repeat will take 5 working days to be processed.
No where to mark as urgent as I am not yet granted access to their system.
Call the surgery they tell me to call back the next day. Spend 3 hours trying to get through to prescription line to be told that I need to mark it as urgent but as it's painkillers they don't class it as urgent. Explain the situation and that Ive been trying to get it processed since last week. They say it's been with the pharmacy team for 3 days and they can't say wether it will or will not be processed by the weekend.
No they can't speak to the pharmacy team.
No they can't mark it as urgent as it's only painkillers.
No I can't speak to the pharmacy team either
No there is nothing they can do
No there is nothing I can do ....expect maybe phone back tomorrow, maybe it will be done maybe it won't.
I've been trying to avoid this happening for almost 2 weeks. Does anyone else have this problem with getting the medication they need or is it just me that feels like they are screaming into a void?

Thanks for your advice. Here's a little update.
No joy on Friday, they wouldn't let me speak to the practice manager as she had gone home. They then made me fill in an online consultation that said someone would be back to me by 6pm on Monday.
Then they told me the only way to find out if I was going to get my prescription was to wait until they close at 6pm. If they had closed without the doctor signing it then I would know that they won't do it until Monday.
Well they didn't call - so I had to get an emergency supply from 111 to last me until Sunday.
I have now run out and am back in the same position.
I have called SO many times today. On the occasions when it's not just engaged I have hold music which I gave up listening to after 45 minutes.
I eventually got through to a receptionist who said she didn't know anything and would get someone to call me back.
What's the bets they don't.......

......and they called back.
Apparently they made a mistake saying it would be done today, it won't.
It will be done tomorrow......possibly.

OP, that's really appalling. You should complain in writing to the GP partners :-(

Yes, I used to have loads of problems with my child's prescription. despite the fact she needs it to keep her alive. Finally seems to be going smoothly now after years and years of frequent crises.

It was so bad that I've stockpiled an extra six weeks' supply by filling it a bit early every month, just to avoid this regular panic. (Plus I was worried about interruptions to the supply chain when a no-deal Brexit first seemed possible.) The GPs are presumably too busy to notice I've done this, or maybe don't care.

I guess with pain medication they might watch more closely, so maybe that isn't an option for you.

I am not in the UK but have similar issues. There are a couple of prescriptions I need all the time, like eye drops for glaucoma etc. i have a new GP as my old one retired. My new one only renews them for a couple of times. My eye specialist would give me a years' worth but they are closed due to Covid.

The bottles are teeny tiny and, of course, opaque so you can't see how much is left. Not to mention one of the drops has a cap that neither DH or I can remove. We resorted to a Goggle search that revealed the same issue was extremely common and maybe soak the bottle in hot water.

My GP's renewal lasts less than 2 months. I keep having to phone in and end up offered an appointment a month in the future. This is obviously a waste of time and unworkable. I guess I am supposed to have a standing appointment booked months in advance.

I sympathize OP. Apologies if I hijacked your thread. It is frustrating, I know.

The whole system is a pita. I have to phone up every month to order my "repeat" prescription, which is fun when they don't answer the bloody phone 80% of the time. These are medications I will be on for life apparently, I have no idea why they have this system, its not like I ordering diazepam or opiates

I've been with my GP practice for 20+ years. (England.)

It gets worse and worse, re repeat prescriptions. An absolute farce.

The pharmacies are dealing with a pandemic and its coming up to their busiest time of time of year, for this entire year they have been overworked and undervalued (I left the sector in June due to the intolerable abuse). I'm not sure people on here understand just how many people a day phone a pharmacy to ask if they can go to the front of the queue.

I would always help when I could but sometimes it's just not possible, plus if the painkillers are controlled drugs then an emergency supy isn't possible. I agree with the suggestion that you should try an independent pharmacy rather than a chain.

Are you planning on staying with this new surgery?

Hi op I'm a receptionist at a surgery. Usually we say to patients when they register it takes up to a week so do they have enough medicine ? If not we usually ask them to get a month sent to the pharmacy ( it's called electronic prescribing ) and you can nominate any pharmacy so usually works well if you have moved away. Usually you are registered with one GP until your new registration is processed by another but sometimes patients have already been removed from the list so this wouldnt work. In that case we register urgently , ring previous GP and ask them to email us a copy of their medication list. This then gets passed to our pharmacy who may pass to the GP. Sometimes the GP will want to speak with or see the patient before they are happy to prescribe. This may be things like controlled drugs ect. Reception would get this message and ring you to arrange this. Firstly I would look on their website and see what time frame they are giving for registering new patients and what time frame for prescriptions to be processed. Then I would ask to speak to the practice manager about what has been going on. The receptionists saying they cant help , nothing they can do ect is not true as they can chase up, send messages, mark as urgent. Granted they cant actually issue it but they can certainly chase it up for you. Usually procedure for a repeat prescription in all the surgery in our area is 48 hours so I think it would be very unusual for surgeries to be asking for 10 days! Hope you manage to get it all sorted out. The other option I thought of is ring get an urgent on the day telephone call ( just says it related to whatever your underlying condition is ) and speak to the gp about your condition then explain you currently have no medication.

Ahh Sleephead1 you sound like one of the nice receptionist from my previous surgery!
I did follow new surgery advice. I gave them the new patient forms at about 4pm new surgery said it would take about a week to transfer me to them. Tried lunchtime the next day to order repeat from old surgery, new surgery had taken me in less than 24 hours which is perverse when you think how slow they have been after that!
I even called my old surgery that day but my records didn't exist their any more so they couldn't help.
It wasn't the pharmacy that was being slow it was the 'pharmacy team' at the new surgery - I'm not sure what they do
The receptionist and prescription team said they COULD mark things as urgent but not mine as MY painkillers are not considered urgent. They aren't a controlled drug by the way.
All I got from the receptionist and prescriptions team was 'my hands are tied, no one can help you'.
I tried to talk to the practice manager but was told she had gone home. I also got told that she would only say the same thing anyway.
I also tried for an appointment but was directed to their e-consult which on Friday told me that someone would get back to me by 6pm on Monday (I filled it in anyway and no one did)
I really don't want to use this doctors now as they were happy to leave me for 6 days without any medication, but I bloody don't want to go through this again with another surgery.
So the good news is they finally sent the prescription to the pharmacy at 5pm. The bad news is that they have randomly halved the dosage without informing me so I guess there is going to be problems with the next reissue again.