To think down to your last 2 tablets is urgent

[SnowyLamb]

Prescription promised on Monday, but some error at the surgery means it hasn't been issued to chemist.

Surgery will "try" and get it issued by close of today (this was at lunchtime).

I've been asked how many tablets left. 2, one for today and one for tomorrow and been told "what's the panic then, latest will be tomorrow?".

Yes, but then I need to get to the chemist and the chemist needs to have it ready and they're just as efficient as surgery are. Sometimes they have to order it. Plus bearing in mind what's gone before, I don't feel 100% confident it will turn up.

How do people who deal with this stuff everyday, whose job it is to help sick people in difficult circumstances not understand (or care?) how stressful it is?

All I wanted was that after they'd acknowledged that it was their error they'd treat getting it done as urgent.

If you ask earlier you get told off for asking too early and building stockpiles!

Ah, yes - I'm on a medication that makes me feel very very ill if I miss a dose, and I've lost count of the number of times I've had to explain to people that accidentally running out would not just be a bit unfortunate, but would leave me completely unable to function. It's only then that they take me more seriously.

So I suppose the question is, are you on a medication where a day missed here and there makes no big difference, or one where it MUST be taken?

It's not for me it's pain relief for someone with a terminal illness. Keeping his pain under some sort of control is the only thing we can do for him and as a controlled drug, it's not quick or easy to get hold of even after the prescription's been issued.

That's rubbish isn't it. They could at the very least acknowledge and appreciate it was their error. Wouldn't take much for them to feign a but of sympathy.

Do you use a regular pharmacy for the prescription?
If it's a repeat and you're regular you can ask the pharmacy for a few emergency pills to tide you over.

I take a controlled drug, I’ve slowly been able to overlap enough that I have a bit of wiggle room if something goes wrong. You really need to stay on top of ordering them though (when it goes right at least).

Our surgery say you should put your order in a week before running out, to allow the surgery 48 hours to turn it around, and then the pharmacy 48 hours (plus the weekend).

A prescription clerk I know says it’s amazing how many people put their prescription requests in the day they are running out, or the day before they are going on holiday etc,

I did. The request was put in last Weds and should have been ready on Monday for tablets that run out tomorrow (Thurs). I'm only stressed because it's not ready in their timescale.

Not if its a Controlled Drug.
The best you could do is ask the pharmacy to make sure the medication will be there when the script comes in.

I have managed to get all of Ds meds so I order them 10 days before but there are still times where things aren’t sorted. Today apparently only 2 of the 6 items on his prescription had been downloaded by the pharmacy. Only when I pointed out it was all ordered in the same phone call was the rest of the prescription discovered

Same day for a repeat prescription is quick and classed as urgent. Generally GP's take up to five working days for prescriptions to be issued. I'd ring the regular pharmacy in the morning, explain the problem with the prescription saying GP has promised and how much is left of the medication - they may if you are a regular order the stock for you there and then often for the same afternoon.

My presumption is it's likely a controlled drug - these prescriptions are often not issued by the prescription clerk only the GP, so can often take longer than a regular repeat. They also can't be given on an emergency supply by the pharmacy.

I have this every week I have a controlled drug on my prescription and I’m on weekly scripts it’s a nightmare to be honest I literally have to put the order in the day I get it I can’t get a dosset box as some meds are PRN (take as and when needed) all 9 of my requests last week were rejected because of a locum GP nightmare to sort out luckily if I don’t get them it’s not life of death like my sons medication if he doesn’t have it life threatening (insulin)
he had to go to the hospital pharmacy to get supplies for his stoma bag a few weeks ago as the GP hadn’t actioned his prescription that comes direct from the supplier to put home
I hope your relative managed to get the medication needed

Stupidly for ds the medication that is easiest to get is the one that is on special order because the hospital pharmacy can only get it from one place in the country. Every month I get a text from them to say “your medicine will arrive b x date” and it does! Compared to the others it is so easy!

The ordering of prescriptions is a fiasco. It seems that the more ways there are of ordering, the longer it takes.

We used to be able to phone the surgery, and pick up the prescription the following day. Then they stopped taking telephone requests, and you had to put them in writing. The timescale for this has gone from 48 hours to a week. Then you could order online, but half the time it didn't work, and you had to request in writing anyway. My surgery now uses a telephone ordering service, but they were woeful, they took 20 minutes to take the order, the person on the phone couldn't spell the names of even the most common drugs and at the end of the call, I was told it would take 10 working days.

This thread provided a useful reminder though, I needed to order a repeat prescription. I've tried using the NHS app, which helpfully gives you no idea whatsoever of how long it will take.

And then it'll take several attempts to pick up the meds, because some selfish fucker parks their van all day in the on-street parking space created especially for pharmacy customers, which is limited to 20 minutes parking!

Hope you get your meds ok, OP.

Yes, I know all this which is why I put the request in in plenty of time.

They acknowledge it's their error, but don't seeming willing or able to do anything about it. They're in the building with the GP. It simply can't be impossible for them to get the thing signed, when they caused the delay. I understand there's a process, but they didn't follow it!

my meds ran out the other day (nurse messed up & forgot to issue prescription) the pharmacist was able to issue a couple of weeks supply as an emergency prescription.
Is your friend 'registered' with a pharmacist that can see his records, or have an online account where he can access the prescribing history to show the pharmacist?
My GP practice sends all my prescriptions to the pharmacy online, so they have a record worth a visit or conversation with your friends pharmacist?

I had a similar issue last week. 4 of my regular drugs are controlled, and have to be ordered monthly. I was going away last week, and would have run out whilst away, so I ordered 8 days before I went away. I went to pick up my pharmacist’s worth of supplies, and just as they were about to hand over to me, they realised the prescriptions somehow hadn’t been signed by the GP - and because they were controlled, they couldn’t even give me a few days worth.

This was Monday night. I was on a flight at 7am Wednesday. Tuesday I spent on and off the phone to the pharmacy and GP surgery. The pharmacy were brilliant; the surgery less so. The solutions were ‘come and collect the script, and take it to pharmacy yourself’ (I was 40 miles away, teaching for most of the day, so couldn’t.); get a friend to come (my only local friend who wasn’t working had lost her mum 2 days previously - I wasn’t going to ask her); and they wouldn’t give it to a taxi driver, even though I was going to arrange, and pay for that myself. In the end, a wonderful lady from the pharmacy went in her lunch break, and got it for me. The pharmacy had it ready for me to collect on my way home at 7pm Tuesday. (They open until 9pm).
it shouldn’t be this difficult!! I get it that people are human and make mistakes, but try to sort them when you do!!

Anywys alas

… anyway. It shouldn’t be this hard. It’s great when it all works, and never overlook the value of cultivating a good relationship with your regular pharmacy.
Aileen from Asda pharmacy was thanked profusely with flowers and chocolate, and I made my flight, complete with meds.
good luck. X

@SnowyLamb Do you have support from the hospice or District Nurses? I found them invaluable with this kind of stuff when DH was EOL.

It’s so shit. My DD only takes thyroxine so a really common and simple drug to prescribe but there is a problem every single bloody time. Alternates between whether the issue comes from the doctors or the pharmacy but every single time there is a problem. And god help us when they change the amount she needs, ends up a week job and countless phone calls. Drives me insane. I really feel for you, it shouldn’t be such a battle.

Even if the patient, coping with illness and extreme stress was late requesting, wouldn't it be better if the staff employed to help them actually looked for ways to do that rather than moaning to their friends about these terrible nuisances that it's their actual job to help?

My 70yo dad has thrombosis and so on blood thinner. He had similar mix up and told pharmacist he had only enough pills for few days but prescription would be next week. According to very angry dad pharmacist chuckled as his situation and walked off. Dad was probably being rude to them but still.