Why such a delay at the pharmacy?

[BluetheBear]

For years I've only really been to our local pharmacy and any time I go in there it seems to take quite a long time to fill one prescription. It's not unusual to go in and wait 15 minutes (from handing them the prescription) for them to provide the item. This is the case even if there are no other other customers in and I can see 3-5 members of staff in the back.

I have never worked in a pharmacy so I don't know if it genuinely does just take a long time to fill a prescription or what goes on in the back whereas DH seems to think they take the prescription then keep you waiting while they do other things or chat.

AIBU to ask if you can shed some light on this if you are a pharmacist or work in a pharmacy?

Don't know the answer to your question but if it's only 15 mins you're doing well. Ours is super-slow, though they are changing hands soon to a local owner with a good reputation so fingers crossed for some improvements.

If the pharmacists are in the middle of doing something, they can’t drop it to do your script. Stopping and starting jobs leads to mistakes and errors and they should all be well trained to be boundaried about interruptions.

Sorting out meds for delivery, filling dosette boxes, stock check, Controlled drugs checks, or general checks for drug interactions or other errors in a script. There’s plenty they might be busy with even with no customers present.

Your DH is very ignorant.
It takes time to dispense an individual prescriptions, and then each one needs to be checked by 2 people.
Add to that all the online prescriptions and 15 minutes sounds very quick.

It is called queuing.

They are definitely playing candy crush

There are a lot of checks a pharmacy has to do before handing over prescriptions including checking previous prescription history or making sure the prescription is accurate for your condition because believe it or not GPs occasionally get it wrong and so they have to contact the GP to double check or to request that they change it. That's before preparing your prescription and getting it counter checked. Even if it is a straight forward prescription it still takes time and often the pharmacy is dealing with electronic prescriptions coming directly from the GP etc, they can't just drop everything to deal with one person who walks through the door. I know our pharmacist also does minor ailment consultations (in person or over the phone) too so if he is busy then a prescription requiring authorisation has to wait until he finished. A lot more responsibility has been handed over to pharmacists to try and ease the burden on the NHS and so they are busier than ever. 15 minutes is actually pretty good anyway.

Armstrong and Miller can tell you the answer:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=_HAu0DvSy-0

Fifteen minutes?
That would be among the quickest prescription I've ever had filled. I remember being asked to come back the next day more than once.

Interesting that you think that they should stop what ever work that they might be involved in to you a priority. They couldn't be that they are making up prescriptions for other people who are not actually stood in the shop. 🤔

In old days, it may have changed. Someone needs enter the script into the computer system, all patient detailed need entered if new person. Then you need to enter the drug then that needs checked and labels printed. Then someone needs to go find the drugs and count them out if packet amount different to amount on script then label them then the pharmacist needs to check them.
That's just dispensing the prescriptions. Nevermind boxs being filled, restocking, dealing with orders. Controlled drugs need even more steps

I'm not a pharmacist but I'm pretty sure at my local pharmacy that they are busy making up the 100s of prescriptions that are sent over from the GP surgeries.

As PP have said, when they're in the middle of making up a prescription they can't just stop. They have to concentrate and do all the checks that avoid errors.

I work in pharmacy, it takes that long because the staff are not standing around waiting for you husband to bring in his prescription.
We dispense about 10000 prescriptions a month, that's about 400 odd prescriptions a day. The pharmacist needs to check every single item before it leaves the pharmacy and also supervise everything that gets sold over the counter.

Also a pharmacy worker here, I wish we could get scripts done in 15 mins! No chance at ours. Also the amount of interventions we have had to do on scripts sent incorrectly by GPS is increasing, meaning checks are taking even longer.
Our average is about 45 minutes. I honestly wish sometimes people could come in and give it a go and see what actually goes on. I would have had no idea before starting working in pharmacy.

When you drop your prescription in , the staff are probably in the process of dealing with hundreds of other prescriptions
15 mins is very quick
My local pharmacy has a 4 hr wait for newly initiated drugs and 24 hrs for repeats

our pharmacy warns you may have to wait up to 7 DAYS

If our gp sends prescriptions directly it’s 48- 72hrs before you can collect. They are always working through a never ending list of prescriptions and other tasks. By going on and wanting it there and then you’re essentially on standby for the next available person to do it for you. 15mins doesn’t seem bad at all.

I usually have to wait 3 days after I’ve requested my repeat electronically. Only time it’s ever been quicker is when GP has sent it as urgent.

I always call ahead now in a morning and they have my prescription ready for the afternoon

Same at ours. I always order my repeat at least a week before I need it for this reason. Even acute prescriptions tend to be next day pick up. You can’t see the GP, come away with a script and get it filled immediately.
On the point of pharmacists picking up minor illness consultations, all the ones near me look at you like you’ve got two heads if you ask to speak to the pharmacist and then tell you to make a GP appointment 🤷‍♀️.

Blimey, it's not half a pound of cheese, it's potentially deadly pharmaceuticals! I want the pharmacist to go slowly, not just slapdashedly lobbing pills into a bottle. They check the actual prescription carefully, then locate the drugs, count them out, label container etc. Then their work is checked to ensure no errors have been made and you're not going to be inadvertently overdosed. I have my prescriptions electronically sent to pharmacist, so they're always ready for me.

Thank you for the reasonable and informative responses - this is exactly what I was looking for and what I thought was the case.

I wasn't suggested they were taking too long or being critical but was curious as to how things work and some of you have been very helpful.

I agree it takes much longer these day to collect a prescription from the chemist.
My personal theory was that they have to dispense more medicine because the population is getting more reliant on medication.

It's an invisible queue, just because you turn up and stay, doesn't mean that you're the only one waiting. 15 minutes is the quickest I've ever heard of being served, so you're very very lucky.

There's a massive shortage of pharmacists round our way. Our local pharmacy is rarely (and unpredictably) open. I request my repeat prescription online. I'd be delighted with a 15 minute wait just to collect it!

It's not that we have to dispense more medicines it's that everything has gone automated so you don't see the full extent of the queue, you just see an empty pharmacy and wonder why everything takes so long.

Back in the day pharmacists would deal with a few patients who were essentially subscribed to a specific pharmacy (IE repeat dispensing of the same drugs at set intervals so the pharmacist would set their prescriptions up ahead of time to be collected at the right date) and everyone else would get a paper prescription from the doctor to take to any pharmacy as and when needed. When you arrived you'd be in a physical queue and the pharmacy would be making up the prescriptions of the people who physically handed it in, and managing that queue to maximise efficiency (eg if you dropped a prescription off but said you'd come back tomorrow to collect it as you were on your way to work then it would be done by the end of the day but they would prioritise others who were physically waiting)

Nowadays, with the advent of nominated pharmacies and the electronic prescription service when you walk into a pharmacy with a paper prescription you will be joining a queue that includes hundreds of electronic prescriptions which have been automatically sent to the pharmacy and the staff are working on between dealing with the people who physically walk in. A lot of the time when people walk in their prescription is already in the "virtual queue" and by coming in they just get bumped up to be done then and there as opposed to being done whenever we get to it.

In my pharmacy we call it a good day if we have less than 100 electronic prescriptions waiting to be dispensed at any one time. A few weeks ago we were wiped out by sickness (as well as general understaffing) which left us with the bare minimum staff and we got to the point where we had 800 electronic prescriptions waiting to be dealt with and it took us till maybe the beginning of last week to get back on track. We were at the point where we had to draft in checkout staff (we are in a supermarket) to work the counter after a 30 minute crash course in the essentials (basically how to find and give out a filed prescription, where to put new prescriptions people bring in and if someone wants anything more than a box of paracetamol or bottle of benylin, check with the pharmacist/dispenser first) so those of us who are trained to dispense could just get on with the actual dispensing/labelling etc and try to keep up with the stream of new prescriptions as well as get a handle on the backlog.

@melj1213 it does sound a never ending and very demanding process.
I can only comment on 2 local independent pharmacies which I visit twice a year to collect my contraceptive tablets and I can see the staff is very, very busy all the time. Much more than before the pandemic started. And they also have more staff than before.
It just makes me feel like there must be a lot of ill people around or maybe more people rely on medication nowadays for whatever reason.
But probably the processing systems take longer as you explained so that makes sense.