Pharmacist accused me of stealing DH's medication!?

[BobbyBiscuits]

I have been picking up meds for both DH and DM from this pharmacy for nearly 20 years. I am not their client personally (Reasons will become apparent).

DH suffered a severe trauma injury and was in hospital, he came out for a week then had to go back in.

In the week he was home he was prescribed some sleeping tablets. Only 7. (They are strong and quite well known at the mo as footballers take them)

I went to pick up his meds during this time but this one was missing. the next day he was back in hospital.
From his hospital bed, he then called the pharmacy to ask where they were, a trainee pharmacist confirmed they were indeed there.

Fast forward a week, when he comes home from hospital. He confirms with GP they sent the prescription to pharmacy. I go to pharmacy to pick up these tablets. They look blankly at me and say there is nothing for him.

I go home and he calls them again to find out what's going on.
The pharmacist proceeds to say "I gave them to Bobby".
No you didn't. "I saw my colleague giving them to Bobby'. No you didn't.

I was shocked to the core these people who I've known for years would accuse me of stealing. Never a good deed eh?

When that wasn't accepted they then said the trainee pharmacist was lying when she said the tablets were there?

Again with the third lie, he then said that as DH had been in hospital and on painkillers he must be confused, i.e has had them himself?

It's clear to me they seriously fucked up, either one of them nicked it or they gave it out to a stranger. Outcome is I cannot ever face them again and we had to have a new prescription sent to a different shop after days worth or agony just to get what he was prescribed. The GP fully believed us as if that guy has done this before?

So, would you report them to the BPC etc for misconduct? What they did was bang out of order and so obviously trying to cover their backs.

Has anyone any thoughts on this, or experienced something similar?

I've had the "you picked them up" routine. I was in another country when I did it. Said I'd call the police and provide my passport and tickets. They were controlled drugs and should not / could not be collected by anyone else without written permission, which they didn't have. I can't prove it, but there was a record of dispensing them, so I wonder if staff sold them as they have street value I'm told.

I would do a written complaint, including their repeatedly changing story, and ask for an investigation to be done as to where they’ve ended up.

They should have done one already, but without a formal complaint they may not

@Notaflippinclue They are very popular with nurses on night duty

What is this supposed to mean?

It means they have a helluva job trying to sleep in the daytime

@Notaflippinclue I know, thats why I thought someone who works there might have stolen it. It feels really dodgy. There's a younger guy who works there that I suspect might be to blame as he's really seedy towards female customers.

You are thinking about raising a complaint over 7 pills?

Your energy would be better placed elsewhere.

Hope your DH feels better soon.

I had to complain recently as when I collected my DDs prescription and they’d mixed up the bags. Her complete prescription went to someone else and theirs to me. Luckily I noticed the bottle of one of the meds was a different colour - it was the same medication, but a very different dose. when I checked the rest I realised the error.

There was 3 controlled drugs in what I was given and when I went back they were downright rude and verged on accusing me of stealing them!

I would do this too actually. I do think OP is overreacting, and I don't think complaint to the GPhC is warranted (or would achieve anything), but a complaint to review internal processes is definitely justified. They should be able to tell you where the meds went, maybe not on the spot, but after a review. I also don't think complaining to the owner of the premises is justified (wtf) assuming they just rent the unit and aren't a pharmacist or pharmacy manager.

@innerdesign Yeah, you are right I shouldn't involve the shop owner. I guess I just knew that he would have been mortified that I felt so ostracised by this bastard.
Going forward we will complain. My mum is quitting too as he can't be trusted.

If you would die or be very ill without the drugs you would be prescribed more . They wouldn't just say "tough luck" and let you suffer.

I'm not suggesting that you don't report it.

I have had the same thing happen! I picked up a paper bag with about 4 boxes of different items inside one of which being pregabalin. The bag was folded down and fastened with a sticker when I collected.

Once home I opened the bag only to find the pregabalin missing!,
The chemist said they were definitely in the bag there's no way they could have been or they wouldn't have fit inside the folded bag.
These painkillers have a street value and are taken as recreational drugs so obviously doctors are unwilling to just replace a prescription should they be "lost".
Luckily my surgery know me well and I'm sure the fact I offered to take down the bag including meds I did recieve helped their decision to replace them.
I realise I was lucky so I make a point of unpacking every bag now on the counter before I leave.

The way to try to think of this is it's possibly just be an accident.
Unfortunately we humans aren't robots and mistakes happen as does that small window of panic and irrational attempt to cover it up.
It's highly improbable they waited for you specifically to blame you so try not to take its personally.

That said it is a serious misstep and only a proper complaint will get to the bottom of it

I would absolutely ask for confirmation of the date and time you supposedly picked them up,and ask for the CCTV footage to be shown to you.The chemist next to my doctors is absurdly over stretched-a small chemist with over 2000 patients to sort medication for.I imagine they remember handing you some kind of medication,hence the confirmation off another pharmacist.Maybe ring back tomorrow to ask if they have been found.Ive had this off my pharmacist,i was told my partners weekly medication had been discontinued and gone back into the system,as I missed picking them up.I had the medication in my hand stating the day I picked them up,and they still told me I hadn't had them.Over stretched and over worked unfortunately.

So would I. A controlled drug is missing.

They don’t seem to wait for the customer to confirm the address themselves. They read it out after you’ve put your hand up to say yep that’s me. So you are just agreeing to the address. It’s terrible. Surely many drugs go missing as a result.
They’re cautious about OTC meds yet seemingly give prescription meds away far too easily imo.

Yes this is exactly what I was about write!

My repeat prescription gets picked up by a staff member from the chemist from the surgery.
I went to chemist to collect my medication and it wasn’t there. According to the staff they didn’t have the medication or the prescription slip.
Went back to the doctors and the receptionist could track the prescription as they all have bar codes. It showed the chemist had scanned and therefore claimed the money from the nhs for it.
(my medication isn’t cheap !)
She called them and they also denied having the prescription or even receiving it.
So She cancelled the chemist claim on the system and reissued a new prescription to me. She also reported it.
Im in Scotland and we don’t sign anything for our prescriptions.

No there are no cameras in most pharmacies.

The camera will show you collecting a prescription so it doesn’t solve anything.
if you knew it only had one item in why didn’t you ask where the other one was?
you do sound very dramatic.

Yes, it all seems a bit odd that OP didn't notice the item was missing at the time.

Your dh wouldn't die from not havinh 7 zopiclone. Its not a med used to treat a life threatening condition. Worst that would happen is your dh would miss a couple nights sleep. If he was in hospital why did u need to collect them as if he is on them regularly then hospital would supply him as per his usual script. Very dramatic imo

My post about the text wasn’t to you, it was to another poster.

Ah! So it was 2 completely different prescriptions, one you took in from the hospital and one sent over from the GP surgery. So you collected the meds from the hospital and then went back to collect the Gp meds but was told you’d already collected it. The confusion could have been that the prescription from the GP hadn’t been received by the pharmacy - this often happens at my pharmacy, and they were confused because you had been in earlier in the week to pick up other meds. If they hadn’t received the prescription, and they remember you going in, that could easily have confused them. They can’t prescribe meds if they haven’t received the prescription. It’s more likely to be the GP surgery at fault than the pharmacy.

Since it ended up with his Gramps in agony for a night, he has a right to.

Hospital as never handed over drugs when I've left hospital. Drs prescribe foe in house and once you're out it's thee GP.