To find it odd that the pharmacy has my number

[Fedup333336]

I’ve not picked up my prescription that was sent there two weeks ago. They have called me today I definitely didn’t give them my number.

@ShipOfTheseus

If you’re in hospital, how can you pick it up, though? And how can you authorise someone else to do so?

IME you don’t need to specifically authorise someone to pick up your meds, you just turn up and say “I’m here to collect Mrs X’s prescription” and they hand it over. If it’s for controlled substances they might require some evidence of your ID (even that is hit and miss in my experience). You’d just phone a mate and say “please collect my prescription from the chemist in the high street”. However I wouldn’t say that “because it’s the done thing and otherwise the chemist might think I was a bit careless” would necessarily motivate me to impose on someone else rather than wait for an extra week and do it myself.

Pharmacists are highly skilled healthcare professionals not just shop workers picking products off a shelf.

I know. My nephew is one. But I don’t know what they can see on your records, which is why I asked.

I think it's a bit odd not to immediately realise they might have access to your contact details.

@ShipOfTheseus

Pharmacists are highly skilled healthcare professionals not just shop workers picking products off a shelf.

I know. My nephew is one. But I don’t know what they can see on your records, which is why I asked.

@ShipofTheseus I would have thought it was obvious that your NHS medical record is accessible to any NHS clinician, but what each clinician can see depends on what is relevent to their job.

So as a bare minimum any NHS clinician - whether that is a GP, pharmacist, nurse, receptionist or consultant - will have access to a basic profile with your name, DOB, contact details and NHS number. What other information they have access to is then entirely dependent upon their role.

So a pharmacist, whose job is to know about and dispense medications, will obviously have access to the "basic profile" (which allows them to contact the patient, which is what I was initially commenting on) as well as anything that is relevent to their job , which includes a list of medications a patient is currently taking as it may affect how/if they dispense a specific drug that is prescribed.

I was very grateful when my pharmacist flagged up a prescription my GP had sent over because he had noted that the drug at the dose the GP had prescribed would have reacted badly with a medication I take for a chronic condition and could have been fatal. If the pharmacist did not have access to my existing medication record then they would not have been able to pick this up and I could have ended up seriously ill or even dead.

@Cokie3 I used to work for Boots and I never thought about people being “late”’picking up prescriptions unless they were bulky and took up loads of room. Even now if I think about it, I would rather people ordered in plenty of time rather than ran out of medicines.
I never heard colleagues talk about it either so you probably aren’t being judged by pharmacy staff.

[quote Cokie3]@Niconacotaco For obvious reasons. It looks irresponsible and like you don't care about your own health. It's simply not the done thing to leave medication at a pharmacist - or anything really - for 2 weeks and make no effort to get it. It doesn't speak well of one does it.[/quote]
@Cokie3
I work in a pharmacy you would be surprised at the amount of people who don't collect their prescriptions. Every month we have around 30-40 uncollected prescriptions.

Central records aren't automatically accessed, but they will have name, address/sometimes phone number, DOB and anything previously dispensed from that pharmacy to you. The central records tend to be accessed in emergencies (with your permission). Most people who have worked in a pharmacy for more than a few months will know what they are handing out and usually what you are taking it for too, it's a job it's not of interest!

I was just curious of how they got my number. I don’t think it’s odd to wonder
You are more than curious though.
You didn't want them to have it.

@Fedup333336 when you go to collect your meds, you could say

"I just wondered how you got my number", it's clearly through your surgery but then you will know.

It's really a non event.

@ShipOfTheseus

I did read the post properly. And yet I see one people has said that means name, address, contact number, NHS number. And yet another person says it means they can see what medication you are on. So, which is it? What can a pharmacist see?

Did you bother to engage your brain before you asked that question? How would a pharmacy be able to supply medication if they can't see what it is?

Did you bother to engage your brain before you asked that question? How would a pharmacy be able to supplyg medication if they can't see what it is?

Don’t be utterly thick! The query isn’t about the current prescription! I wondered about the medication you are currently on- all the other medication you might be taking, not the one on the prescription. That’s what I want to know.

A pharmacist is able to see all the medication someone is on, they are trained in drug contraindications and will check to see if your new prescription might cause a problem with the old one. It is correct and appropriate for them to be able to see information they require in order to do their job properly. If you don't want to share appropriate medical information with medical professionals, then I don't know what to suggest. Try having an apple per day and cross your fingers?

@ShipOfTheseus

Did you bother to engage your brain before you asked that question? How would a pharmacy be able to supplyg medication if they can't see what it is?

Don’t be utterly thick! The query isn’t about the current prescription! I wondered about the medication you are currently on- all the other medication you might be taking, not the one on the prescription. That’s what I want to know.

Hold on - you said in your previous post that you knew all about pharmacists as your nephew is one.

Which is it then? Are you well informed or not? Frankly it doesn't seem like it. Two posters have already explained the basic obvious need for a Phamacist to see information about your current medications and you are still questioning it.

Maybe call up that nephew and have a chat?

@ShipOfTheseus why don’t you ask your nephew what he can see on a medical record?

@Ginuwine

Can someone explain to me why there is this growing trend on here for people to question whether anyone in an official or commercial capacity can have their contact details, and use them in said official capacity?

It's like the job one from a few days ago. It just smacks to me of people saying "oh but my privacy!! I want to ensure my privacy at any and all times because it's my right".

Ok, but you might want the pharmacy one day to proactively call you about something especially if linked to a doctor's surgery who send prescriptions through automatically. Pharmacies are technically perfectly safe businesses who have to abide by data rules.

There is a preciousness of thought here sometimes from certain posters who want to look for issues wherever they can find them.

I wish I could like a post.

posters have already explained the basic obvious need for a Phamacist to see information about your current medications and you are still questioning it.

The posters are saying different things. Eg, one said if you go to the same pharmacy, they can see what else you have had on prescription previously from that particular pharmacy. But what if you use a different pharmacy each time? I assume there are no standard rules, because everyone has different answers. Obviously they know your name, address, phone number, and the medication you have just been prescribed- that’s a given.

Where I worked you could only see what had been dispensed at that pharmacy not others. The pharnacist generally knows if the dose is in the right range and if has any concerns will ask if they have had the med before. There are certain meds you carry a booklet if you take them, but you would know if you were on them. The GP will obviously know what you are taking when they prescribe. Pharmacists tend to look at central records if they are doing emergency supplies.

It's probably linked to your prescription. I had a pharmacist phone me once and she even showed up at my house because I hadn't picked up a prescription...!

Sorry, further to my previous reply, she showed up at my house due to a prescription error is what I meant to say

The pharmacy that I work in only get phone contact details from the patients themselves. If we have a problem and no contact details then we phone their surgery who will either deal with it or ask the patient to contact us. Anyone who has tried to contact their surgery by phone would know how time consuming it can be, plus the time it then takes for the surgery to get hold of the patient. So its really speeding things up by just giving pharmacies your phone number. After all, you trust them with a lot of other personal information.

Every Saturday I go through the prescriptions and pull out every CD script that is 2+ weeks old (they have to be collected within 28 days) and every other script that is 4+ weeks old. I try and contact the patients by text primarily or landline if we they have been given to us. Anything that doesn't get collected by the end of the next weekend will get put back to stock and their electronic prescription is returned with a "patient did not collect" note. A note is also made on the patient's record of this being done in case they come in at some point later for it.

@Fedup333336

I was just curious of how they got my number. I don’t think it’s odd to wonder.

I don't think you need to be a rocket scientist to work it out. Or use Google