Do all Pharmacies do this? Aibu?

[Tilda77]

I've just returned from collecting a prescription from the pharmacy and am wondering if I'm right to be concerned about their way of doing things. It is a very small pharmacy so the 5 customers were all about 1 to 3 metres away from me. First off you're asked for name and date of birth. When they give you the prescription you're then asked for your address. Then you're asked if you are exempt from the prescription charge. I took the prescription exemption paper work with me and she read it and said it out loud for all to hear. Do all pharmacies do this? Am I being unreasonable....it's fine people probably don't care? Am I not being unreasonable...this is not ok and they should change the way they do things?

[starfishmummy]

I'm not asked my date of birth and have never heard anyone else being asked at my pharmacy.

[Tilda77]

When she asked for the name and date of birth she wrote them on a piece of paper and puts them in a little basket for the pharmacist. She then asked me to spell my weird surname...just in case those at the back didn't hear what I said the first time. I requested my prescription online. Makes me wonder whether they shred all those bits of paper with names and dates of birth on?
I was talking with DH earlier but he is very laid back about absolutely everything. I said to him that when we go shopping would he stand in the supermarket and loudly announce his full name, d.o.b, address and reason for a medical exemption if he had one? It proved a point and I can't believe many people would want to do that. I don't know why we do it in the pharmacy?

[HighlandPony]

I’m in Scotland so we don’t pay prescriptions anyway but the rest yes it’s normal. Name, dob, first line of address.

I’ve been asked for ID before

[Glitterblue]

Ours show you the label on the package and ask you to confirm if that is the correct name and address. During covid they asked "what should I tick?" and I would say "pre payment" but now they give me the thing to tick and sign.

[Glitterblue]

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

You're lucky they don't ask what meds you're picking up too, ours does and I don't want to share with everyone waiting!!

That's awful, mine often has controlled drugs in the package and I wouldn't like to be followed or anything! Ours only ask how many items you're expecting or "was it just the one item you were expecting?" etc - they never ever say what any of them are.

[CurbsideProphet]

My small local pharmacy asks me to tick the required exemption myself and on collection asks me to confirm the first line of my address. They never say out loud what the medication is, as surely there's no need given that the name of medication is on the prescription itself?

[FurryDandelionSeekingMissile]

@newnamethanks

I've also had a similar experience jessieminto and was miffed when assistant bawled 'Mrs Newname, here's your diazepam'. We had words. It's one thing checking medication is going to the right person, quite another to let the neighbourhood junkies you're picking up a saleable item.

Yeah I dislike feeling I'm being made into a target. When I pick up my prescriptions, I get given one normal paper pharmacy bag with most of my drugs in, and then a separate small blue bag with a big preprinted purple sticker like this on it.

I suppose it's fairly obvious from the fact I have to sign two pieces of paper and show my ID that I'm picking up controlled drugs, but all the extra stuff makes me feel like I'm wearing a "mug me" sign 😂

[Bagpuss2022]

Mine don’t ask and on the sticker thing it is F for exempt but I’m not I have a pre pay certificate so annoying am I exempt or not?

[jessieminto]

@FurryDandelionSeekingMissile yes yes I'm the same. They put a big CD sticker on mine and I had to wait as it's in the safe and only the pharmacist who was dishing out the methodone could access it. I go somewhere else now and always drive.

[RolyPolyLittleBatFacedGirl1]

I work as a medicine counter assistant in a pharmacy and we ask for your name then we go fetch your script and medication and ask for first line of the address, once it’s confirmed I’ve got the right Joe Bloggs I ask (quietly) ‘Do you pay for your script?’ If it’s a no then I just ask them to tick their exemption box and sign at the bottom. If I had to ask any further questions about medication I always ask if they’d like to pop into the consultation room for a bit of privacy.

Confidentiality and discretion are very important parts of my job and I take them seriously.

It would be considered bad practice in my workplace to act as you’ve described in your OP.

[doodlepoodlenoodle]

@Bagpuss2022

Mine don’t ask and on the sticker thing it is F for exempt but I’m not I have a pre pay certificate so annoying am I exempt or not?

I have worked in a pharmacy for over 20 years. The letter F is next to the box you tick on the back of the prescription. That's why it's says F on your label. It's more for our use and I have many people ask what it means! So you have a pre payment which technically means you pay but yes, you are exempt as you've 'pre-paid' .

[doodlepoodlenoodle]

Also, with regards to checking exemption checking, a lot of the time in my pharmacy we like to be sure that you actually are exempt because the NHS have got very hot lately on dishing out fines to people.

It's like with people on Universal Credit- that doesn't automatically mean you don't pay, you have to meet certain criteria and the UC people should inform you if you pay for prescriptions or not.

With regards to patient confidentiality and asking for details when dishing out prescriptions, it's always dealt with respectfully in my pharmacy and also it's a final check for us that the medication is going to the right person. And like PP have said, no one else in the pharmacy really cares or is listening to what is being said.

[Communitypharmacy]

To answer the question about personal date either written or on the top of a script, yes all of it is shredded by outside companies who take it very seriously. If I caught anyone putting confidential waste in a regular bin they’d get very short shrift from me, and as awful as it sounds, I’d make them go through all the bins to double check there was no more. We take personal data extremely seriously in my branch.

We ask if people pay and if they say no and hesitate then we put the script on the counter for them to select. Having an exemption on the script is pointless because exemptions change. As someone above said, they are very hot on clamping down on people putting the wrong exemption, so we are trying to help our patients not get fined.

As for saying the drug names out loud to patients in the queue, that’s a no no. We may ask if they’re expecting X amount of items but we don’t say them out loud. CD stickers have to be used because we send the scripts off at the end of the month and we need CD stickered scripts segregated for the NHS.

[FurryDandelionSeekingMissile]

Would've been very hard for anyone in the vicinity to avoid hearing, the time when the staff member yelled at me from in the back, "What's it for?" and I had to shout back, "Depression!" 🤣 I mean, yeah, technically I didn't have to immediately answer her, but it would've taken more social/interpersonal bravery than I possess to refuse.

Most of the time pharmacy staff I've interacted with seem reasonably conscious of confidentiality and privacy, within the limits they have to work in — I think it would be impossible to serve the number of patients they need to without some acceptance that things might be overheard and hopefully politely ignored by other customers. It must be harder in a village pharmacy where customers might know each other than it is in the town centre and supermarket pharmacies I mostly use.

I still think it's stupid to dispense things with a big purple unremovable steal-me sticker on the bag, though.

[NoodleSnow]

I fully understand the concern about personal information.
There’s generally no need to be concerned about other people being aware of exemption status in general. I think only about 10% of prescriptions are paid for via the prescription charge - most are not. The reason for exemption though should be kept private.

[smileandsing]

I assumed the standard way of asking was 'Do you pay for your prescriptions?' and then asking the customer to check the appropriate box if not. There are lots of reasons why people may not have to pay, no need to ask customers to share personal stuff like income status, pregnancy etc in front of others.

[FurryDandelionSeekingMissile]

@Communitypharmacy WRT stickers, I'm not talking about stickers on the script itself, I'm talking about being given my controlled drugs in a different and obviously special bright blue bag with a 2.5cm purple sticker with a massive exclamation mark on it and the words "controlled drug", that can't be peeled off. It's very clearly something special and desirable, if you're the kind of person who's after that sort of thing… it just makes me uncomfortable. I shove it straight in a pocket. Other pharmacies I've used haven't done this thing with the sticker on the bag, but the one I need to use at the moment does (and they're not very discreet overall, asking questions like "And it's a controlled drug?" when I'm not normally asked verbally to confirm that).

[Communitypharmacy]

@FurryDandelionSeekingMissile

@Communitypharmacy WRT stickers, I'm not talking about stickers on the script itself, I'm talking about being given my controlled drugs in a different and obviously special bright blue bag with a 2.5cm purple sticker with a massive exclamation mark on it and the words "controlled drug", that can't be peeled off. It's very clearly something special and desirable, if you're the kind of person who's after that sort of thing… it just makes me uncomfortable. I shove it straight in a pocket. Other pharmacies I've used haven't done this thing with the sticker on the bag, but the one I need to use at the moment does (and they're not very discreet overall, asking questions like "And it's a controlled drug?" when I'm not normally asked verbally to confirm that).

In our pharmacy we have to have stickers on the bags to identify a controlled drug, there are very strict rules about dispensing and collection of them. All of them are only valid for 28 days and we need to keep an eye on giving them out. With 1000s of items a week going out we need to identify them. All CDs need to be signed for and if we’re busy, we’re never not, then we may miss a drug so we rely on visual stickers to identify where an extra signature and ID is needed before it leaves the pharmacy. We are governed by law to make sure we are dispensing within the law, the last thing we want is to fail on an inspection because we’ve not followed protocol.

[Sparklingbrook]

I have to pick up controlled drugs for a relative with an exemption card. I pass the card over and tell them this is who I am collecting for (they write the number of the exemption card on their bit) and they ask for the address. But relative gets a text prior to say their stuff is ready so no discussion about what's in it.

When I go for myself I really don't care, they have to dispense the drugs to the right person somehow.
When I go to the GP your name comes up on a huge screen when it's your turn to go in, so anyone who knows you knows you are at the Doctors for something. They could potentially tell a friend or family member that didn't know you were going...

[FurryDandelionSeekingMissile]

@Communitypharmacy

In our pharmacy we have to have stickers on the bags to identify a controlled drug, there are very strict rules about dispensing and collection of them. All of them are only valid for 28 days and we need to keep an eye on giving them out. With 1000s of items a week going out we need to identify them. All CDs need to be signed for and if we’re busy, we’re never not, then we may miss a drug so we rely on visual stickers to identify where an extra signature and ID is needed before it leaves the pharmacy. We are governed by law to make sure we are dispensing within the law, the last thing we want is to fail on an inspection because we’ve not followed protocol.

Thanks for the inside info. I've read about the legal requirements, but obviously the way that pharmacies set up their policies to help them stick to these isn't something I can read about easily. I can see why making controlled drugs very obviously identifiable for the person at the counter is useful, but I wonder if the pharmacy's policies were written with any thought for any vulnerability customers might feel walking away with Controlled Drugs written on the outside of the bag. (And I also wonder why my lot use bright blue freezer bags, but maybe that's just my pharmacy being weird )

[bingbummy]

What I've noticed about customer service is the more necessary the service the less of a crap the staff give about any type of customer service.

So in M&S you'll be treated like royalty, having worked for them I know it's because they spend 2 weeks training staff in detail about the customer service ethos and what they expect down to the wording of the greeting.

In a pharmacy or surgery customer service won't come into it because what are you going to do? Shop elsewhere? Also having worked as a medical receptionist I can tell you there is zero training on how to speak to customers and the surgery doesn't give one toss about how you speak to them either.

It seemed natural to me to be kinder to the latter group given they are in a vulnerable position but unfortunately a lot of people who get these jobs relish the opportunity to be straight up areseholes to people who need help.

[Tilda77]

I think in the future I will see if it is any better at a bigger pharmacy elsewhere even though the one I went to is convenient as it is so close to home. I can only speak for myself when I say I was picking up a prescription to help me get better and I'm vulnerable through illness so I didn't need to be made to feel more vulnerable. It seems my experience pales in comparison to some of the experiences posted by other people on this thread