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?

They = hospital staff. I had morphine throughout my 2 week stay. I explained badly. My own meds were not lost during ward transfer - I didn't move and they certainly weren't administered at all.

I’m sorry this has happened, and I suspect that there are all sorts of reasons for it.

Recently my husband went to pick up three medicines for me from the pharmacist. But he didn’t bring back the main one (for my blood pressure) so he went back for it and was told by the very grumpy senior pharmacist that I had ‘obviously picked it up and had forgotten’. Well, I hadn’t picked it up nor had I forgotten I’d picked it up!

I wonder if some pharmacists are not getting the full prescription via the computer system or are misinterpreting what has been sent through and then blaming the patient because, obviously the computer will be correct and the patient may be an idiot?

Are there any stats on mistakes made by pharmacists or inconsistencies in their systems?

🌷

Could it be because your husband is on blue prescriptions? So the pharmacy are being extra careful/suspicious?
Sad but true that many blue script patients lie about losing medication in order to get more? And the pharmacy might suspect this?

My DH was given the wrong blood pressure medication. They gave him a Beta blocker instead of his usual Lisinopril.
I took it straight back, the pharmacist apologised profusely and held an investigation into how it had happened.
I always check the pack before I leave the shop now.

The hospital in my area is big teaching hospital, it has its own pharmacy from where all drugs are issued to patients being discharged from wards. It also dispenses Outpatients prescription medication. Usually a fourteen days supply of regular meds, enough to keep you going until the gp is informed and puts it on repeat.or a full course of antibiotics for example.

I had this with a superdrug pharmacy. I was 8 tablets short on my prescription. Not a lot but my doctors wouldn't give me any more as it was such a strong drug. The pharmacy tech was adamant I'd miscounted and taken more than I should have. Impossible as even 1 extra dose would gave put me in hospital. I couldn't figure out who to report them to so ended up just changing pharmacies.

Are you sure it was on the same prescription? If it came at a different time, even just minutes apart it MAY be still on the shelf in pharmacy. Have you asked if it's been claimed for. I work in a pharmacy and as hard as you look for a patients name it does get missed. And re sleeping tablets that are kept in cd cabinet perhaps they forgot to take them out of there.

So they didn’t give you an owing note for the medication. you were missing?
But you collected the painkillers?
Because they gave you something in a bag - from
your end even though you’re in the right it’ll be harder to prove. I’d be really interested to know if any other zopiclone has gone missing from their pharmacy in similar circumstances?
When our local pharmacy gave out of date medication to my grandma, with the date highlighted with 2 signatures on it, and I complained - it went through to their supervisor of pharmacists for investigation and through quite a robust regulatory thing albeit with some chasing. If it’s a chain pharmacy even a smaller one like well etc perhaps see what in place or ask for complaints procedure?
I hope you get it sorted out. x

What do you mean, footballers take them? Are we talking about zopiclone? Is it suddenly trendy for footballers to take zopiclone?

Wish it was like that where I live !

@noodlebugz Thanks a lot. Yeah, that's it. He went back to the GP and had to awkwardly explain (without being too full on) that the pharmacist said he gave it when he didn't. GP fully believed him as if the guy has form? She sent it to another shop as we did not want to face that guy, and I got them from there. But it was miles away and I had to get a taxi in the rain. This was over a week after the script was issued to the original pharmacist.
We will be making a complaint.

@MsBellows I dk about suddenly but lots of footballers have been reported to suffer from addiction to it.

To be honest nothing surprises me anymore with pharmacies. Yes they are struggling to recruit but there's certainly plenty of business based on the queues. We are all on meds here yet despite waiting a week or more after the dr sent the repeat across they are never ready, and sometimes they haven't even thought to order in stock (dsd and dp are on unusual meds) it annoys me that I have to spend 2-3 hours per month chasing up their prescriptions (I'm the only one not working during the restrictive local pharmacy opening hours since the boots closed (online pharmacy was useless they just failed to deliver the unusual meds!)

My pharmacy was privately owned, and used to be brilliant. I could get our medicines within 2 days (though I usually left it longer) They've now been bought by a chain, and the first time after that, that I went to them, they hadn't got them after a week. It turns out that they send the prescriptions to a central place for dispensing; and the first time it took 2 weeks to get them back. As the surgery will only issue prescriptions when you've got less than 2 weeks supply left, it was cutting it very fine.

The patronising, & posturing faux-naif tones weaving around your thread, @BobbyBiscuits, are further evidence of creeping lack of reading comprehension. Zopiclone is notorious for its street desirability: you are right to take this further. Pharmacists are human, & thus fallible &/or subject to temptation. A medicinal mix-up is serious, it is not akin to grocery substitution.
Ignore the posters persistently undermining your clear problem, & pursue complaint with view to investigation. Helpful comments have directed you; I'd begin with notifying management of the pharmacy chain, & up via regulator etc.. (senior pharmacists hang their certificates on the pharmacy wall, take their info)
Wishing your husband, and you, well.

@NickyWiresSunnies Thanks very much. Totally this.
The pharmacy is independent and it's the guy who's lying/ covering for others lying who's name is on the wall. So the complaint will be about him personally. He's in charge and if his staff are stealing then he's complicit if he doesn't stop it.

Just because there is plenty of work it doesn't mean they are making much money and as you say, they are struggling to recruit. Lots of Pharmacies are closing.

I would report. My friend who works as an anaesthetist told me that they have to be really wary of drugs going missing - at one point they sent a syringe of what was meant to be some kind of painkiller or sedative (not sure exactly, but a powerful drug) to the lab to be analysed and found it was pure water.

If it's a drug with any kind of street value you have to assume there will be temptation and of course it's easy to tell a customer she's got it wrong and hope she's too stressed to question further.

but if you complain it may help to identify a patter - you don't know who else is having similiar 'issues'. (sounds like the trainee may need a closer eye.)

*pattern, I mean, though patter works here as well!

Thank you so much everyone for your feedback. Also some shocking tales of bad pharmacy practice.
To those who persistently claimed it's nothing, it could happen to you.
I feel so jaded by the whole saga to be honest. Live and learn eh?
But sharing on here made me feel we are doing the right thing by reporting him.

Pharmacies are in dire financial straits. On average over 93 percent of their business comes from their NHS contract - which has been cut by 30 percent in real terms in the last 7 years. In that time prescribing volume has gone up by 11 percent, staffing costs have risen, national living wage is going up, rents are going up and the cost of medicines are going up. Lots of new services have been introduced. They are working harder for less money. Pharmacies cannot put up their prices when their costs go up as the prices are set in their national NHS contract (which has fallen 30 percent in real terms). They get paid £1.27 per prescription - plus the cost of the drug - but often drug prices are fluctuating so wildly since Brexit and other supply chain issues (Ukraine, Gaza, Red Sea) that they are dispensing at a loss.

The second largest chain Lloyds went out of business. Boots are closing 300 stores. Sainsbury's closed 240 - they can make more selling cans of beans. Of the top 10 companies 6 made a loss last year.

A national survey last year showed that public trust in pharmacies is still high with 87 percent of the public saying they are treated with respect by Pharmacy staff. A retail survey this month showed that incidence of abuse from customers in all retail settings has gone up massively with staff facing more and more aggression and abuse from patients.

41 percent of retail workers are experiencing being shouted at or spat at every week - that includes pharmacy staff.

Spare a thought when you go around trying your get people struck off. And be glad you're not running a pharmacy business.

@Bouledeneige I can well believe all of this. I certainly am not aiming to get the pharmacist "struck off', which wouldn't happen over one complaint anyway surely? I feel it should be raised as if he has a habit of doing this then he should at least be disciplined. Or their internal processes need to be looked into. It's in DH's hands now. The good thing is, we are both calmer so in a much more sensible frame of mind to make the grievance known without sounding 'hysterical/ OTT.' (As some pp on here have suggested I sounded like)

But according to MN posters a pharmacy worker is just a glorified shop assistant, all they do is stick a label on a box and chuck it in a bag 😏

OP - I’m sorry you’ve had a bad experience with this ONE pharmacy, if I were you I would nominate yourself to another.

As for the “lost” meds it’s perfectly possible they are still on the premises somewhere, they could have been put on the wrong shelf when filing scripts, the items may have been put back to stock in error or maybe the script was never actually dispensed and was just sat on the computer waiting to be completed. It sounds as if this wasn’t explained properly to you by anyone in the shop, I would consider it more a customer service issue than someone deliberately trying to withhold the medication.

Complain if you feel you must but I doubt any action would be taken against anyone at the pharmacy.

As a pharmacy technician it is infuriating to hear how badly some pharmacies run and immediately blame patients.

I would say at the same time, that I'm paid ten pence above minimum wage with 18 years experience. Recruiting and maintaining staff in the sector is a shambles and so much pressure is on pharmacies with more and more services. The amount the pharmacy earns per item dispensed is pennies and the workload and lack of decent qualified support staff is overwhelming. This isn't excusing anything, or aimed at you OP. But after reading some comments I feel many don't know the amount of pressure, workload and paperwork that goes on behind the scenes and it's ludicrous that I'm a healthcare professional and patients safety is in my hands if I make an error as a checking technician. My earnings are less now than they were ten years ago. The pharmacy sector needs proper funding and incentives to recruit support staff.

Back to your husband's prescription.

If it was zopiclone so not a sleeping medication that's in the CD cabinet then that means it's not going to be an error in just not fetching the CD from the cabinet.

Firstly I'd ask if the prescription was electronic (eps). These are far easier to track, especially if you collected some items but the one was missing.

The staff should have checked your husband's PMR (record) to see when each item was labelled. He should've checked to see if they were labelled separately. An ongoing issue since electronic scripts came in, is we'll label and dispense one token (this could be one item or as many as four) on one day. Then it's bagged and in the retrieval system. The next day we get more tokens (prescriptions) for the same patient. Unless the dispenser is paying attention and realises said patient has X items dispensed yesterday or in the last few days, and is proactive in joining them up, often it leads to multiple bags in different locations and terrible service for the patient unless they notice in the pharmacy.

Sorry for the rambling..

Next the pharmacist should check that the EPS token for the missing item, and search to check it's status. If the other items you collected are in separate tokens and are marked as CLAIMED but the zopiclone is marked as processed/unclaimed this is a sure sign that they've misplaced it somewhere. Not to say that the token being claimed means staff should automatically presume you have it. It could be that item was missed. As you say mistakes happen but to accuse a patient or patient's rep of stealing or lying about having a prescription that they haven't collected is terrible.

I would say it would be highly unlikely for a staff member to steal a made up box of 7 zoppies. The drawers are full of them if the staff are dishonest and thieving from work and it's much more likely that it's been displaced.

If anyone ever has this issue, my first response would be to ask them to check their retrieval system. Ask them to show you the status of the token eg claimed, processed. If it's only processed then you have every right to request it's returned to the spine so you can collect elsewhere.

The attitude of some pharmacists more so the older ones in my experience is often extremely negative judgemental and distrustful towards patients on a blue prescription. It shouldn't be this way and I've tried so hard to challenge this.

Please do complain formally.

Not exactly the same thing, however I was given someone else's medication a few months back in the same bag as my own only with one of my items missing!

Now looking back on it I really hope the person who's medication was missing hadn't had to go through something like this! As it would have been put down as "delivered" on their paperwork.

For me it was a two minute call to let them know what had happened. They had been full of apologies and all was sorted quickly.

Think the worse mix up was last month.
I did my regular order on the phone. Two days later ask pharmacy to deliver. To be told there is nothing here! and the last lot had been collected a few days prior. Obviously I know hadn't collected it..so they suggested calling the doctors. (This nonsense goes on for a week) Lots of calls back and forth to pharmacy and doctors..to then be told the doctor is refusing to send any more over without talking to me.

Right fine make appointment..to be told nothing for another week..I told them I'd run out and what they are doing is dangerous.. doctor is not ment to allow me to run out..or just stop taking them like that..even the pharmacist was disgusted!

(Sorry this is becoming longer than I intended)

I then called again next day for emergency appointment..they refused to give me one as it was for a repeat prescription!

After some more messing around.
It turned out..the doctor had believed I had somehow taken 240 of one set of meds and another 60 of another in the space of 4 days and was asking for more. Or I must have been selling them/giving them away! I made it very clear I think I'd probably not be alive if I'd taken them..so your accusing me of what exactly?

This was all down to the fact the receptionist had not bothered to check the printer was broken and rather than my script going to the pharmacy (as usual) it had been sent to print..so on their system it stated "collected"

But it was actually just sitting in her system waiting to print!

I didn't even get an apology from the doctor.

Honestly you'd think they would keep better track of these sorts of drugs (one is a controlled substance) so I would have to sign for it.

Begs the question. How was it out down as collected.