What do you hate about...

[Poppet13]

Pharmacies?

I work in a pharmacy (inside a supermarket) with a very loyal customer base but am looking at ways to improve our customer service etc.

Our main issue is where the pharmacy is located in the store, it's hard for people to a) queue in a normal fashion, b) not be overheard by nosey customers unless they go in the consultation room! Drives me mad that people stand so close and listen in.

So yeah, what do you dislike about your local pharmacies or pharmacies in general?

:)

People standing nearby ear wigging and generally pushing in and being overbearing.

Pharmacy assistants who argue with you when you're asking for over the counter medication. I know they have to ask certain things, but not everyone is a numpty who can't organise themselves and their medications.

That in all the years of asking, I have never been able to find a pharmacist who can recommend a medicine that will actually shift cataarh (urgh hate even writing the word!).

I think consultation rooms are under used. Perhaps the staff should ask the patient if they want to use them. I took dd to the pharmacy with a rash behind her knee. The pharmacist got her to roll up her trousers in the shop to show him it, when the consulting room was unoccupied.

He said it was infected eczema, but he couldn't give anything for it without a prescription. I also think pharmacists should be able to provide a wider range of meds. I don't want to take up GP time taking a healthy child to the doctor for a minor skin infection - she doesn't have severe eczema, just a small patch that comes and goes.

The price ! Why would i buy Infacol from a pharmacy when I can buy it from the supermarket so much cheaper?

I definitely agree with all of you.
Our consultation room is very underused, mainly because its actually quite far from the pharmacy counter itself and people don't want to go that far etc. It should be used more though, I get incredibly fed up of nosey customers.
I think pharmacists forget unless they are asked by the customer if they can speak in private.

Doodle I agree, that's what's lucky about a supermarket pharmacy, I can just send them to a different aisle! :-)

I think the thing that's made me the most angry (which goes alongside nosey customers) is when they so obviously listen in, and then give advice?! Making the assistants who are all trained to a high standard look stupid, plus they could be on all sorts of medication that would interact with what they are saying is 'so good it got rid of a, b and c'