To cheat on my local pharmacy

[theqentity]

My local pharmacy is small and independent, and opposite our doctor's surgery, so services a lot of the local community. My DH and I both have repeat prescriptions and use it regularly, and always liked that it was a bit 'old school' (staff who move at snail pace and chat to you, card machine always takes ages to work, they sell those cheap knockoff perfumes with names like 'Innocence' that smell awful, computers often 'down') and liked using it because generally it didn't inconvenience us that much and it was local.

Since Christmas it's gone from mad to worse. They stopped doing prescriptions at all for a week. For three weeks nobody was allowed inside because of 'staff issues' so everybody had to queue outside like they were collecting food stamps and wait for a person to open the door a crack and thrust your prescription at you. I spent literally hours of my life down there standing in the freezing cold. That's finished now, but a note on the door today states that they now need 5 working days to process prescriptions. Oh and they're cash only for the foreseeable. The nearest cash point is over a mile away.

We actually live closer o a different chemist now and could use it. But DH feels bad that we aren't supporting a local business through a tough period.

WIBU to cheat on my chemist? I know the staff by name and I know I will be given a very dirty look if I suddenly go back there after not going for a long time. But I just want to get my meds and fuck off!

@theqentity

😂

Bugger that for a lark.

I use Pharmacy2U. No complaints so far.

a five day prescription turnaround isn't terrible if you take into account the work that goes into processing one - if they are right next to the doctors' surgery they are likely to have a fair number to get through as well

Are you mad?!

You can change pharmacies for any reason you like, OP. Don’t feel guilty, you sound lovely 😊 I’m a pharmacist and my nominated pharmacy has changed 4 times in the last year!

Unfortunately, a lot of pharmacies are sinking hard and fast. I know people hate the Covid ‘excuse’, but community pharmacy is still genuinely struggling as a result of the pandemic.

Our workload increased massively (we went from roughly 400 items a day to around 1000) but we lost staff due to shielding and self-isolation. Also, the lack of appreciation and the amount of pressure lead to 3 members of staff leaving in space of 4 months.
We had many maskless Covid positive/symptomatic patients coming into store to top up on remedies while coughing and spluttering over the counter.
Our footfall increased too because we were open when GP/dental surgeries were closed to public.
My lovely team and I have never provided so much dental advice in our careers, I’m thinking of opening my own dental practice in my shed.

Staff are leaving in droves. Few people really want to work in pharmacy anymore because the pay is shit for the amount of work you’re expected to do, the general attitude towards the profession is “it’s just sticking a label on a box”, and you feel undervalued and unappreciated. Even fellow HCPs treat you like shit, we should all work together to provide the best care in the community for our mutual patients, not against each other (I’ve had a GP call me a jobsworth for wanting them to amend a lethal methotrexate dose, and a nurse call me difficult because they had written a CD prescription incorrectly, making it not legally valid).
I’m concerned about the future of community pharmacy, especially with the surge of online pharmacy services.

I used to work for a large chain, our target to turn around regular repeat prescriptions was 48 hours. If we fell behind more than 72 hours, we’d have “crisis talks”.
However, we always advise reordering your medication about 5 working days before you’re due to run out. At least 48 hours for the surgery to receive and process your request and at least 48 hours for us to receive the prescription, data entry, obtain the stock, and get it clinically checked, dispensed, and accuracy checked.

I would urge anybody not happy with the service they receive to change pharmacies. Don’t worry about loyalty or upsetting anyone, your health and your medication are important and should be a priority. Do what works for you.

Thank you to those of you who have an understanding and appreciation for your pharmacy teams! I’m really sorry for how long and possibly irrelevant this post is, I’m very passionate about my profession and I’m slightly delirious as I’ve had 7 coffees and 3 teas today to get me through an understaffed 12 hour shift😂

I get mine delivered as couldn't cope with the snails pace at my local pharmacy anymore.

Do it. If anything you're relieving some of their pressure so helping them out.

@coffeecoffeecoffee90 oh I am with you on feeling under appreciated by other HCP’s. I had a full on argument with a prescriber who couldn’t grasp that a CD script for Buprenorphine had to be written correctly. Not MDU. They sent the script back three times before they put the appropriate instructions! And each time I rang they didn’t understand why I wasn’t accepting it and thought I was being picky for no reason.

Unfortunately pharmacy is failing because everyone is failing us. Poor pay and absolutely zero support anymore. Yet they insist on increasing our work load and services! God knows how many services I now offer in my pharmacy and don’t get a penny extra. If you ring a GP to query a script your the one that ends up answering the damn question.

If my children ever say “I want to be a pharmacist” I will be having a very quick conversation with them “no”.

But apart from all the terrible things it can be a very rewarding job and I have helped and saved many patients, which is the main reason I wanted to become a pharmacist…not to see how many LFT’s I can give out for targets 😂

@coffeecoffeecoffee90 These are the reasons I ended up leaving community pharmacy mid pandemic. I just couldn't do it anymore. Kudos to anyone still in there, you are stronger than me.

I do jump on these threads to defend the sector quite a lot but I worry the ship is sinking and there's little to be done about it. The multiples have been gunning for remote supervision for a decade and they are happy to let everything burn to get it. Closing pharmacies because they won't pay locum rates, unsafe staff levels, reducing hours, it's worrying but not surprising.

I will also deter my kids from joining the profession.

Mail order is the way to go for any med you need regularly.

Years ago I went to a local pharmacy and they were always short on things, so I'd get 10 tablets instead of 30 and they'd tell me to come back in a few days for the rest. When this became a pattern I realized that they were too broke to have money for stock, so they'd collect for the prescription then order some more. So I changed pharmacies. They went out of business soon after that.

@ChloeHel They tend take us clarifying something/wanting something changed as an attack on them when it’s totally not. Asking you to change a lethal dose or to write a prescription legally is not saying you’re a shit doctor/nurse, it’s making sure that we don’t collectively kill a patient or break the law 😅😂
I had a woman argue with me because her sister who is a nurse told her to buy Sudafed liquid for her 1 month old baby. My dispenser obviously refused to sell it to her. I also refused to sell it to her and she still complained to head office because we had apparently undermined a nurse😅

Without sounding all sunshine and rainbows, I just wish that we could all work together and make our patients experience with community care the best that it can be.

But unfortunately, things won’t get better any time soon. It’s the dispensers I feel most sorry for to be honest. Their pay is far too low for their workload and responsibilities but I’d be lost and running a very dangerous ship without them. I hate how they get treated.
Don’t even get me started on targets. I don’t do my job based on numbers, I do it because I actually care about the patients behind the prescriptions!!

I often see people complain about how “slow” their pharmacy teams are but to be honest, I’d rather a slower process with minimal mistakes than a fast process with a huge amount of errors. We’re not handing out sweets! I’d rather my dispensers took 5 minutes to dispense a simple 2 item prescription and get it 100% accurate, than try to rush it and get it done in 1 minute but make multiple errors.

I would say move on, don't look back.

I work in an independent community pharmacy. We had 180 prescriptions come down electronically in an hour today straight after lunch. 3 a minute. 1 pharmacist (who owns the business)... who has to check them all... whilst taking walk in queries, filling other prescriptions,
nhs and private, from walk ins, comforting a recently bereaved longstanding customer, fielding customer phone calls about drug interactions, arranging staff cover due to covid absence, and many other things.
We have 6 members of staff on at a time. One driver, and then one on the counter, one on the phone, the pharmacist, and 2techs. In a space 30feet by 25 (including the shop and 40 tote crates of prescriptions waiting to be collected). There is no room for more people.

We are not quick enough for some. They complain at having to wait for 15 minutes to "just have a quick word with the pharmacist", or at being asked to come back because we don't stock every single dressing in the world.

Can't please 'em all I guess.

@coffeecoffeecoffee90 totally agree. Things would run a lot smoother if we all worked together PROPERLY. But everyone is struggling right now.

And yes, the dispensers have a very tough work load and quite possibly the worse pay I’ve ever seen. The company I work for are losing dispensers left, right and centre and sadly we aren’t getting any more to replace them. No one wants to do ACT courses anymore, so it’ll come a time where we the pharmacists are simply stood alone to dispense and check! Self checking will be a regular occurrence.

@TrufflyPig You’ve got the right idea! I’ve lost 2 of my dispensers and a technician to hospital pharmacy in the last few months. They pop in from time and time and they’re always telling us how much happier they are. They’ve fallen back in love with pharmacy and it’s so lovely to hear that but also slightly heartbreaking😂
I’m hesitant to move away from community purely because of the rapport I’ve built with some of my patients. I worry that there’ll be no community pharmacists left soon! I will probably take the plunge one day though.

I wouldn’t recommend community/retail pharmacy to anyone unless they genuinely have an interest in it. I know of many people who were customer assistants and were asked if they wanted to step up into pharmacy. They had no interest in it but management would sell it to them by telling them they’d get a (tiny) pay rise. I find that those stores tend to be the ones where the service is not just poor because the staff are swamped and burnt out, it’s poor because they just didn’t really want to do the job in the first place, which reflects badly on those dispensers who genuinely care and are interested.

Sorry to derail the thread slightly!

Sod that! My local pharmacy (Boots) is practically next door to the Dr's but are hopeless. Attempted to get some insulin & a staff member, not the pharmacist, said they were out of stock of that particular brand, couldn't I use a different one?! It's not like paracetamol, any brand will do..
Never went back again, I now use Lloyds Chemist who are far more organised & knowledgeable.

@coffeecoffeecoffee90 if you work for the company that pushes for customer assistants to move up into the dispensary then you definitely work for the same company as me 😂

Following on from my previous post I had a reminder about ordering a repeat prescription yesterday so I ordered. By today it's been approved by my GP and is in the post now. Brilliant !

@ChloeHel I’m saying nothing… 😂🤐 all I’ll say is that if I’m having a particularly trying shift, the kind where I think “I can’t do community anymore”, I try to remember how much money I save on makeup and Christmas presents with my staff discount 😉

To be fair, I’ve worked for 3 chains and 2 independents and I would not go back to the independents in my area. I also don’t use independents for my own prescriptions, I work 7-7 and every other weekend. My local independents are open mon-fri 9-4. Great hours while you’re working for them, not so great when you’re a full-time working patient 😂

I actually have fallen back in love with pharmacy since changing to hospital coffee!!

It's a huge pay cut and we have had to make sacrifices but I would highly recommend it, I'm much happier. Wish I'd done it sooner.

I honestly think the general public have little idea how difficult working in a community pharmacy is.

I’m impressed that it’s “only” five days’ wait.

Is the closer pharmacy not also a local pharmacy? Even if it’s a chain, it’s still going to be local people working there. Just means profits will be going to shareholders (such as pension funds) not an individual.

Is there really any hope it will get back to the previous acceptable standard of madcap service? There is no point supporting businesses that are failing. It just prolongs the agony and the amount of poor service received.