Moan about pharmacy

[Nameinspirationneeded]

I know how stressed pharmacists are and I will not be mentioning it to them and definitely not making a complaint (Have done that when given the wrong dose of aa anti epileptic drug in the past.)

Just collected my repeat prescription and been given too much of two of the drugs I take. It makes things confusing having extra pills.

I understand what happened- both drugs come in boxes of 60. The stickers on the box have the correct number (one should be 56 and the other 28) but I was given the full box. it’s happened a few times.

It annoys me that the GP will only give me one month drugs at a time, yet I’m given extra pills that won’t be able to be re- prescribed. I will try to remember the one I got more than double of. It can be useful when I get less pills from the pharmacy though.

Please report this to the pharmacy. A similar mistake for a vulnerable patient could cause them harm.

Have you got the full quantity inside? Could they have taken your tablets out if the box of 56?

Silly question, why can’t you take the extra pills? If you’ve been given double of the other pills, don’t reorder them next time.

sorry didn’t reply
I sort the pills into day and night strips for the month so that’s why I know I have 4 extra of one and 28 of the other. I’ll try to remember not to order, but if I’m rushed I may accidentally tick order all.

The extra 4 happens quite frequently, not the 28. I think that may have happened once. Sometimes get 30 instead of 28 if each strip is 10. Do have the other way ax well, once when I was going on holiday, so in a sense lucky I had some of the tablets from previous errors.

Pharmacies by law must now supply certain epilepsy medication in original packaging so that the warnings are displayed each time for patients regarding pregnancy prevention. This applies to epilim and some other medications also if it is epilim then they need to be kept in the foil packaging as they will react to the air if exposed. If dispensing in a tray it is possible to cut them out in the foil and pop the foil at the time of taking

I know this is an old post but I have just come across it, I have worked in pharmacy previously. When we received a prescription for a 28 tablets but the box contained 30 tablets we would dispense the full 30 rather than take two out. So a box of 30 instead of 28 or a box of 60 instead of 56. We were allowed to give up to 10% more (Obviously not for controlled drugs).
This is because it is so time consuming for the dispensers, it’s not considered a valuable use of time by head office to spend the day “splitting” boxes. However, the label should be amended to reflect the fact you have received a full box.

Thanks @GeishaTrumpet it makes sense, especially with such a shortage of staff at all levels. You can see they are run off their feet and have some tricky customers- mine also dispenses methadone each day and I’m sometimes collecting a few minutes before. The people taking it are outside and some can be intimidating to me and to staff.

I only once needed to complain, which was taken very seriously with an apology when the wrong dosage was dispensed- box was correct - content wasn’t.