little trip to the pharmacy

[Tom55]

Popped down to my local Sainsbury;s to drop off a couple of prescriptions today, leave them with in-store pharmacy to get made up whilst doing a quick shop.

Guy behind counter says let me check we have these first (there were six different medications but all pre-packaged stuff), no problem, because if he hasnt then I can take it elsewhere,

watch him walking around the back, picking up boxes and checking them off the prescriptions,comes back with my presrcriptions, but no items says

"Yes we have them all, be about 10 - 15 minutes..."

I know he probably needed the pharmacist to actually authorise their issuing, but it did amuse me,

[shakotan]

You don't get out much, do you?

[singlecoil]

I know what he means, though, this idea of having to wait 20 minutes has been going since the sixties, maybe even further back than that. Even then they didn't have to get the mortar and pestle out.

[GTIR]

Er?

[Captain Volvo]

Come on, there's got to be more to this.....

[ytrebil]

Does anyone actually know why it can take up to 20 mins to get a prescription!? Do they have a pet sloth behind the counters picking them or something?

[Nolar Dog]

My prescription "bugbear" is when the pharmacy only has one box of what I need.

Every 3 weeks I call the same pharmacy for my repeat prescription which they then collect from my GP. They tell me it will be ready in 1 week.

1 week later I go to collect it and... "We've really struggled to get hold of them. You'll have to come back for the other box next week".

How hard can a box of tablets be to "get hold of".

[thepeoplespal]

ytrebil said:

Does anyone actually know why it can take up to 20 mins to get a prescription!? Do they have a pet sloth behind the counters picking them or something?

It is the double checking, and catching the odd script where one of my crowd has dropped a bk and issued entirely the wrong thing or at a dose that might do a patient harm. Single scripts are pretty easy, multiple drug scripts are a bit of a nightmare, but I know the pharmacist we tend to work with a lot of the time is a font of knowledge on dosages and has and does query non standard doses or potential harmful drug interactions.

Mostly any queries are what was intended, but occasionally a pharmacist saves the day and stops potential harm happening to a patient, I've a lot of time for the pharmacist we have dealings with and he certainly earns his corn.

[Paul Dishman]

singlecoil said:

I know what he means, though, this idea of having to wait 20 minutes has been going since the sixties, maybe even further back than that. Even then they didn't have to get the mortar and pestle out.

That's the old Boots trick to get you to look around the shop and buy something else. Its been going on for ever.

You should go to decent indy pharmacy: our patients never have to wait that long

[Paul Dishman]

Nolar Dog said:

My prescription "bugbear" is when the pharmacy only has one box of what I need.

Every 3 weeks I call the same pharmacy for my repeat prescription which they then collect from my GP. They tell me it will be ready in 1 week.

1 week later I go to collect it and... "We've really struggled to get hold of them. You'll have to come back for the other box next week".

How hard can a box of tablets be to "get hold of".

Depends what it is. The government has sucked so much money out of the system that the slightest production problem causes a shortage of stock.

The other problem at the moment is that because the pound is weak the drug companies can make more from selling their stock in Europe than from our NHS.

The whole supply system is on a knife-edge and it will get worse because the DOH is again reducing the prices it pays to the manufacturers in March. This causes the wholesalers to de-stock and try to run on reduced stock levels which invariably leads to shortages.

[captainzep]

Its true.

Everytime I go to Tesco to pick up a prescription to stop me pissing fish hooks, I come out with some miscellaneous phone/Ipod/PS3/TV accessory/cable and a carrot cake.

I hadn't really thought about it before.

[Nolar Dog]

Paul Dishman said:

The other problem at the moment is that because the pound is weak the drug companies can make more from selling their stock in Europe than from our NHS.

I hadn't considered that. Thanks.

It's Estradiol Valerate

[Paul Dishman]

Nolar Dog said:

Paul Dishman said:

The other problem at the moment is that because the pound is weak the drug companies can make more from selling their stock in Europe than from our NHS.

I hadn't considered that. Thanks.

It's Estradiol Valerate

We only stock the Progynova brand and I've not come across any problems getting stock.

[Nolar Dog]

Paul Dishman said:

We only stock the Progynova brand and I've not come across any problems getting stock.

Thanks. Mine is Climaval and the pharmacy (Boots) struggle almost every time.