To STILL be really cross with the pharmacist

[worstdaughter]

This happened a little while ago. Following an emergency appointment I had a handwritten prescription for several items including zolpidem which is a schedule 4 drug, ie a controlled drug but the least controlled iyswim?

I went and handed it in and the pharmacist called me over and handed it back to me saying he was refusing to fill it because my (HANDWRITTEN!) date of birth on the prescription didn't match what they had on file?!
I took a look and the prescriber had written a slightly wonky 4 which was correct, it was still recognisably a 4.
I said what is the issue and he said I might have faked it. He then HANDED IT BACK TO ME and told me to try another pharmacy?? He was speaking to me like I was a child, also.

It felt like he was playing a weird power game with me. If he really thought it was fake surely he should have kept it and... I don't know... Checked with the prescriber?? Not sent me off to try my luck somewhere else?

It really did feel like he was picking on me because my prescriber wrote in a hurry and it was issued by the crisis team - which is relevant a) because I was obviously vulnerable and b) they answer the phone pretty much instantly so it would have been quicker to check than to argue the toss about prescribing.

Not only that but I then rang the crisis team, got them to email the pharmacy and I have never been given a prescription so grudgingly in my life. I still get tearful thinking about it and I want to know if I am overthinking it and need to get over myself.

Also, sorry for being a bit sharp in the replies.

@TrishTrix I work on an inpatient psychiatric ward and virtually all our patients are on zopiclone or another z drug. Our home treatment teams/crisis teams also prescribe them frequently. Z drugs have their place.

What evidence do you have for that?

As an fyi, it can be enormously stressful to have a question mark over whether you’re going to get your meds or not. We have this frequently with DH, who has a serious lung condition. Not getting his meds on time can easily lead to hospitalisation. In worse case scenario it could cause death. Yet you wouldn’t believe the amount of errors we have with prescribing. Drs not prescribing meds when they should, prescribing some but not all, forgetting to send the script to the pharmacy, etc etc.

Not only is that hugely time consuming for the patient to chase up and wait around for (I do a job that’s equally as responsible and time pressured as that of a GP, fwiw, so don’t have time to waste an afternoon once every 28 days).

Add in two bank holidays over a weekend, with pharmacy shut and also the GP, and OP will understandably be stressed. With all that, though, I still don’t see evidence of that in her posts. What are you seeing?

And why does that absolve the pharmacist of any need to treat the customer with a modicum of respect?

There's about 3 different pharmacists that work there but yes, I had used them as my regular pharmacy for 10 years. Never had that particular drug before though.

No. He has enough to do. He’s a pharmacist not a receptionist or PA.

All of this. OP I feel angry for you and I hope you got your meds and feel better.

That seems absolutely fair enough tbh

Thank you, I actually did number 4 and got the prescriber to call them but I still got a few more words when I came back again to collect it. All that for a few nights of groggy sleep, should have gone round the corner to Tesco for a nip of brandy, it would have been cheaper as well. 😂

Oh wow! That’s quite the attitude! I would have thought checking a prescription for accuracy would be part of his remit, but who knew.

I guess if he’s the only pharmacist in town, he can afford to offer zero customer service, leave customers feeling uncared for, and expect people to lump it. If he’s got competition, though, I think a love it or shove it approach isn’t going to win him market share. And at the end of the day, it’s a bit sad if nobody will give anyone else even the steam off their piss. Not a nice environment to live in.

Word of mouth isn’t proof against an illegible prescription should something go wrong. He’s not going to waste his time with phone calls. OP can call the doc and get it rewritten, that seems like a much more productive use of time that may actually yield some results.

It was the pharmacist job I'm afraid op and yes alarm bells would ring for them. It's their job if they get it wrong.

He’s not going to waste his time with phone calls.

Mine does. She’s a nice person, though.

She also never treats me like shit. That kind of feels like a basic level of expectation to me.

And that is lovely and I do support going the extra mile to be kind to people and make their life easier. I just don’t think that we should expect it. Work loads differ also, and when people say no, they say no and that’s that.

If the date on the prescription was wrong they can't dispense so another would be required, if you feel they were rude go elsewhere in future.

I’d write a complaint and log it with the company - if it’s a chain send to formal complaint service

you can say you don’t need response, but want to log how the interaction made you feel and for them to overate and take action to improve their service by learning from your experience .

Trouble is- pharmacists can get into trouble for dispensing a forged prescription. Ie prosecution etc. I was informed by a PC that he would not arrest the person who was blatently trying to obtain mediation via a (badly) forged script as it hadn't been dispensed but he would have arrested me for dispensing it. We then had a conversation about the law and the offence the forger had committed. I sought clarification from the Home Office regarding the treatment of the forger and ended up with an apology from his Chief Constable's office.

Stictly speaking the pharmacist was correct if he was confident the script had been amended, but he should have tried to confirm with the prescriber and probably retained the script. However he should not have been patronising.
From bitter experience, you can get very hyperaware if you work in a pharmacy where attempts to procure drugs via forgery are common. It was one of the reasons I left community pharmacy years ago..

So what do you think the company will do? Tell pharmacists to dispense prescriptions even if they think they are fake?

Did you read my first message 🤦‍♀️

4 points made as to what pharmacist should have done

and none of those included dispensing a prescription;they could not read

jeez - really 🤯

and this particular pharmacist has always handed over your prescriptions without question?

This is just wrong and, I think, very odd. The pharmacist is an arm of the health care system and so should have a higher duty of care to the vulnerable population they are serving: keeping the situation confidential (not bellowing: Ive got your psych meds! Across a crowded room for example) and not shaming or blaming a patient for the mistakes of another person are the least that can be expected.

Even if the OP were drug seeking a little compassion would have gone a long way.

When I went to collect my (not urgent, not controlled) prescription, the pharmacist apologised to me because the nasal spray I had been prescribed was no longer available on prescription. They asked if I was happy for them to contact the GP and get an alternative issued. I was and they did. I only had to wait half an hour. They are nice people, they are professional, and that's why I use them. (They also get faster results from my GP surgery than I do).
They could have just waved me away like the OP's pharmacist did.