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?

Mine are usually done within a couple of hours. By the next day at the very latest.

I called my GP surgery ( local number and a real person answers) this afternoon at 13:45, got an appointment for 16:10, given a paper prescription, walked across the road, handed in the script, walked out of the chemist with tablets in hand 16:25. I f i call the prescription line, again local number and a real person answers, i ask for a repeat prescription and collect it from the chemist after 15:00. If my surgery and chemist can do it why can't others ? Is it because they are disorganised, useless or can't be arsed ? It has got to be one of those 3.

Do you not have all of these options? I didn't know the GP could limit the options, that's crap!

OK that's really really weird! Does the gp surgery have control over what drugs are available via that route?

Ours are authorised the same day and we can collect the day after from the pharmacy.

I do, if I click the 'review & request' it just takes me to the list to re-order from, no options for as to where

The option to change assigned pharmacy is under View and Manage Prescriptions on mine

For anyone joining here -

I do have the NHS app - there's no option for changing the pick-up location. Receptionist says that has to be done in-person at the surgery.

Pharmacy4u don't do my dose of sertraline though curiously another pp can get that dose from there.

It's a dispensery in the surgery. Pharmacy (boots etc) requires driving to a different village/town.

Have discovered (thank you pp) there's an option for emergency prescriptions via 111 & that is available on the app - I'd need to use this service every month

I get my prescriptions delivered via Pharmacy2u but it still has to be signed off by my GP surgery. They send the request to the surgery on the same day I ask for it but it can take anything from 1 to 10 days to be approved. Can be awkward if you know you are going on holiday or something as I never know if it is going to be approved in time and they don't let you order any earlier.

I can't see why they would - where are you seeing that you can't get 50mg sertraline from Pharmacy2u?

@SapphireOpal yep, it says at the top I can do that from that page but there is nothing in any of the buttons

That’s a ridiculous length of time! Our surgery always sends the prescriptions to the pharmacy the same day but then they take 5-6 days to get them ready. It used to be much quicker than that, sometimes it was even later that day that I’d get a text saying it was ready. I do sometimes run out of my painkillers before they’re ready because I can only order them on a certain date then they take ages at the pharmacy - and the drs refuse to put things through any earlier. Same with my husband’s painkillers for his arthritis - last year the dr who prescribed them made it so that he could reorder them after 2 weeks to allow the time at the pharmacy and he never ran out, but then when his prescription review was done the other week they’ve set it at 4 weeks. He ran out today and wasn’t able to order any more until today. He asked the surgery on Monday if they could put the repeat through early to allow time for the pharmacy to get them ready without him running out, and they said no. Yet they did process it today, only 3 days later 🤦🏻‍♀️ It won’t be ready until Monday or Tuesday so he’s got to cope without them until then, and the cold weather is making his arthritis worse.

Right here - this is so odd

In which case you should be able to ask your GP practice to send the prescription to a different pharmacy. I don't think they are allowed to refuse to do that.

So if someone id´s given a prescription to collect straightaway, what on earth happens?

If they are the only dispensers for that surgery they must have a pretty good idea of whet is needed.

Are they only ordering as they get the prescriptions with no stock?

It's really hard to fathom why it takes so long.

If the next nearest chemist isn't too far it might be best to move to there for peace of mind.

Here (Germany) our GP has only recently started putting repeats on your health card & then you take it to any pharmacy.

Problem is that he doesn't put them on until the evening so you can't collect until the next morning & people are unhappy with that as previously you could just take your paper prescription straight to the chemist!

I think, but not sure, that they have to. I have got a friend who uses Boots and its really good.

Just order from an online pharmacy and get it through the post.

I order a repeat from the chemist who then obviously has to request it from the surgery and the surgery takes around 4 or 5 days which I thought was too long. You cant phone the surgery for it either, you either go in person (cant do that due to work) or order from the chemist.

There are other online pharmacies you could try and I'm sure pharmacy2u would just issue two lots of 25mg. That is what pharmacy does if they don't have the correct tablets in stock.

Not good. We take 73 hours during bad times.

Take you script to the nearest town.

Ours is about 12 days. My daughter has lots of medication, none of which can be delivered as it won't go through a letterbox and no safe place can be used so I have no other choice. One of her medications only last 3 weeks so almost as soon as I have picked it up I need to order again. I've had to get the GP to adjust the frequency for ordering so I can get it all in time.

I have recently just changed mine as had nothing but trouble they wanted me to put my prescription in before I had received that weeks so the GP declined as looked like I was stockpiling I have weekly scripts (MH controlled meds)and monthly ones they just kept messing them up
since been with new pharmacy approved within 24 hours

I am also in a rural area where the dispensary is linked to the GP surgery, and there is no option for me to collect elsewhere or have delivery.
Fortunately things have improved greatly and now my prescription is usually ready 3 days after ordering. Previously there was a tiny window to order ( had to be between 2 and 5 days before prescription due) and around half of the time it was not ready when I tried to collect.

@Caerulea it is shite here as well!! i used to get my dh's every two months. pharmacist retired and the new lot are about as useful as a chocolate teapot! i often have to make 4 separate trips to get everything. oh we have none of that. we only have a week of that. give you half. on and on it goes!! told dh he could collect his own cos I am just done with them! the worst thing was, the pharmacist on duty said to me that he should still have one of those tablets left!! one? so it was too soon to get any more!

My GP at one point had 5 days (dispensing GP)

What they were actually doing was that they had limited stocks of drugs.
If you saw the GP and they prescribed they gave you the drugs.
If you put in your repeat and then went to collect it, you'd be asked how many days you had left and they'd only give it out if you were either nothing left or one day left.
If you said you had two or more days left they'd give you an owing slip and tell you to come back tomorrow.