[graham-cParticipant]

I receive prescriptions for other conditions, though it is accurate to say that I only actually get them on the agreed date about 50% of the time. As my GP surgery is now in a brand new purpose built building with an on-site chemist you’d think the system would work better, especially as they boast of having an electronic system. It appears to be based on ‘Chinese whispers’.

Though I should receive a month’s supply for each item I discovered recently (not the first time) that I had received a three month supply of one item and half a month for another. After performing a drug swap with them today I was then informed that I’d have to return to receive the item I had been short-changed. To add insult to injury I was then handed a ‘customer satisfaction form’. There was no box for ‘functionally incompetent’ so I didn’t complete it.

I don’t consider any of the items to be a matter of life and death but with kidney issues that may well change. It’s amazing that there was a recent suggestion that chemists should be used to give medical advice.

[Anonymous]

Our in house chemist is run by Boots and they are hopeless but we are having great fun at the minute as they have installed one of those press the face buttons to say how they are doing….we’ve nearly worn it out…as we have been in and out of doctors so many times recently for all members of our family …and the button pad is close by door in and out…even though we haven’t needed the chemist it’s given us such satisfaction to press the red angry face and get our own back…it’s probably very petty but it makes us chuckle.

[graham-cParticipant]

Having turned up today at my chemist for the third time to collect the remnants of my prescription I thought I was going to be let down again judging by all the searching they were doing. I was feeling very unwell, and not a little soggy, so I terminated our relationship without further ado.

Chemists trumpet this new Electronic Prescription Service but I can’t see how it affects patients at all and, if my experiences are anything to go by, it appears to be a disaster.

I now have so little faith in the system I’ll have to go back to my GP to get a printed prescription to take to my nominated chemist in the hope that it works a little better this time. At least this chemist is a little nearer to me. I need to get one item removed from the prescription anyway.

The problem appears to be that the Consultant has to tell you and your GP of any changes, and your GP then has to tell the chemist. The chemist then has to alter their ordering system to accommodate any changes which, in my case, isn’t happening or they’re doing it wrongly.

 

[avrilro55Participant]

Gosh we have an inhouse chemist at our Coastal Villages Practice and they wonderful. I guess we just lucky. Feel for those of you who dont have this service. Dont need added problems.

[graham-cParticipant]

I consider myself to be a very polite, pleasant and easy-going person but I do have limits.

I cancelled my automatic prescription with the old chemist as the whole process was completely random and I don’t need the extra exercise of calling in on them daily to discover whether or not they had my medicines. With winter coming I considered that I’d be better off not taking medicines than enjoying extra walks in the snow.

I received a text message from my new chemist (who also happens to be located much closer to me) on the appointed day,  and I went to collect the pills with much trepidation. Hardly surprisingly, though I had had a doctor’s appointment for the sole purpose of pointing out that 28 pills taken twice daily only lasts half a month, I again had half a month’s supply to last me a whole month. The doctor I saw told me that he was a Registrar, that I believe to be French for Locum, and the Receptionist said that he didn’t have the power to sign or alter prescriptions, making me wonder what he was doing sitting in the chair at all, but the Receptionist said she did and duly tapped away on the computer in a convincing manner.

Even the new chemist made the mistake of telling me that if I contacted my GP the prescription could be corrected for next month. I didn’t have cross words with the old chemist and, for the geographic reason previously mentioned, I don’t want to fall out with my new one, and I should at least be happy that I’m getting the wrong prescription on predictable dates.

The problem is that I cannot honestly tell the Consultant when I see him next month, that I have been taking the prescribed medicine regularly and I’m not going to cover for my GP. Even the correct prescription doesn’t cover me for a full month, but I’m not that picky.

I simply cannot believe that I’m having to make appointments to see my GP simply to get her to set up the correct prescription. Thankfully lack of the prescribed medicine isn’t life threatening but, as I have CKD, that may not apply in the future.

I really don’t want to fall out with anyone but being reasonable isn’t getting me anywhere. My GP can expect a telling off on Monday.

When my patience is tried, I am not a nice person and I have left a comment on the NHS surgery site but I suspect that they won’t allow it even though it’s very restrained and simply factual, but getting prescriptions wrong is a basic ‘no no’.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by  graham-c.

[graham-cParticipant]

I’m a little surprised to find that the NHS has posted my comment on the surgery review site but it’s well deserved. They overlooked the original change of prescription and, when I pointed it out, they prescribed only half the medicine and when I pointed that out, they did nothing.

I’m a little concerned that since they amalgamated local practices into one new purpose built building it has gone to rack and ruin. Getting a prescription wrong is simply ‘verboten’ for a GP.

Considering that CKD is on my horizon, with a visit to Haematology this coming week, getting prescriptions wrong in the future may have much more serious consequences.

I’m still perplexed as to why the surgery has a doctor there without the authority to prescribe.

[Author]

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