To think this is too long for repeat prescriptions?

[Caerulea]

The waiting time for prescriptions at our surgery (rural, dispensary on-site, no pharmacy in the village) is now at 14 days. They've been working their 'backlog' for a couple of years now & the time just takes longer and longer.

They recently said we can put requests in up to 10 days in advance of when we need the meds but they are over-running every month. This month I would have been 3 days without my anti-depressants having put my request in on the 19th. Rang today to chase, was told to go down. Sent eldest to grab them & they refused. I rang again, they refused & just said it would be tomorrow at some point. Put the phone down & burst into tears at which point DH grabbed the car keys and drove down there. Came back with the prescription (without being aggy, prolly just looked desperate cos he knows tomorrow would be really unpleasant for me).

But really? 14 days turnaround? How long are you guys having to wait?

YABU - that's just how it is, suck it up buttercup
YANBU - that's batshit! Are they hand-pressing each pill?

I don't have that option in the app, it's just a repeat prescription request, no other options than to select which meds you want

If I happen to be at the GP surgery seeing either a GP or their pharmacist, I can ask for the repeat prescription snd it is sent to the chemist immediately and I can collect it 10 minutes later but usually I do it through the NHS app and collect it 48 hours later.

Does the pharmacy offer a redi-repeat service?

We have this so when we collect our medication for the month, we put in the following months repeat so they have 28 days to get it ready. It's very helpful. No remembering to put it in so many days in advance and then having to collect it before going to the pharmacy (goes from pharmacy to surgery and straight back to pharmacy).

It also reduces the risk of not having the right meds as the pharmacy can order in advance.

At our gps pharmacy in a small village have a fab service , if you are on a repeat medication then when you pick it up, then automatically reorder it and put the date it will be ready for collection on your bag . For example got my tablets today - and they wrote on my bag, tablets will be ready for collection on 26th Feb, makes life so much easier for everyone.

Similar as Lulu here - I email the GP practice they send it to local pharmacy for pick up but I have to wait for a text to say it is there. It is normally 2 - 3 days so just a matter of making sure I am not out before I email & GP recommends emailing when 5 days left.

If they are a dispensing GP practice you don't have to let them dispense your prescription. You have the choice to take the document to any pharmacy. Where are you in the country?

That's awful! 48 hours at ours, unless done via the NHS app, in which case it's same day.

I work in healthcare, that's ridiculous and the fact you've missed some doses of your medicine means I would be putting in a complaint via your ICB (Google 'what ICB X GP practice, Y village' and you'll find their website). I'm assuming you're in England here. If the GP practice refuses to let you order medication via the app, also ask the ICB about this as I thought all English GP practices had to offer this (might be wrong).

Dispensing GPs are not pharmacies - do you have a pharmacy you can get to in a supermarket or bigger town? You can nominate your prescriptions to go here - ask the practice. They may push back as dispensing makes money for them but with this wait time I have zero sympathy for them. I wouldn't use an online pharmacy especially rurally, going in person to a pharmacy once you can see on the app that the prescription is issued is the best way forward I think.

I have phoned when I'm near the end of mine and had a prescription sent to my nominated pharmacy for later the same time. This sounds ridiculous...

I don't think they care anymore. My OH has a similar problem every sodding month with the hospital oncology department to get his package of drugs including chemotherapy tablets. Every sodding month they screw it up. They either get the dates wrong - it's automatically every four weeks - like most other cancer patients, how hard can it be? And end up issuing it for the wrong date. Or they don't issue the whole lot. Or they issue the prescription to the hospital pharmacy, but don't "approve" the issue (it's two factor approval because of it being a controlled drug), then the pharmacy screw up by telling us it's ready when it's not (because the second authorisation hasn't been pinged!). Then some months they miss out a drug, or prescribe the wrong dose of a drug, etc. They really don't give a toss about getting it right nor appreciating the urgency. If he doesn't start the monthly treatment on the "right" date, it puts the next months' back and they can't cope with that either!

Is the delay at the gp or pharmacy end?

It's the NHS app I use but there's no option to change where I pick-up from. Afaik the surgery themselves choose what options are avaliable to the patient in the NHS app?

Dispensery, the gp clears it the same day it goes in.

Odd.. I think I had to type mine out (propranalol) very slowly and carefully otherwise it didn't find it..

@taxguru that's bloody awful. I can't understand how there's such huge variations between surgeries/hospitals.

For a regular repeat it's 3 days for the GPs surgery to process then it's sent over to the pharmacy which takes 2 days to process. A paper prescription handed into the pharmacy takes them 20mins 🤷🏼‍♀️

I use an online pharmacy. Put the request in on their portal, I get an approval note the next day and then receive my order the day after that.

I ordered a prescription on Monday morning online and received a text from my pharmacy at lunch time on Tuesday it was ready to pick up. Max time would be 3 days. Online ordering is great and can be done anytime. So if you remember at midnight you need to order you can go and do it right away.

I wait around three hours, they send it by fax to the local pharmacy and then it is ready that day (or the next if it is not in stock)

There should be a section on your NHS app to change nominated pharmacy

Also, if you’ve run out of medication due to their incompetence then go on the 111 website to fill in the form for emergency prescriptions

You should then be able to nominate a pharmacy that will provide you with a short supply

@Fencehedge it is odd, it's the dose they don't do, 50mg sertraline which is bog standard I thought? They do 25mg, 150mg & 200mg

5 days for mine.

@CaptainAwkward Just double checked in the app & I don't have the option. I can do the emergency request via 111 in there but that's it. I'd not noticed that before, thank you for the head's up :)

Pharmacy2u definitely do 50mg sertraline, it's where I get mine!

Ask your gp to prescribe double 25mg. You can send you prescription online to anywhere you want . You can contact the online pharmacy they contact the GP , the app is only for brick chemist.