advertisement


What’s your usual pharmacy like?

Tony Lockhart said:
First off, our pharmacy, part of the GP surgery, struggles with staff. Today there was only one working there, used to be four I think. It’s a good surgery, well regarded.

But. When I turn up to collect a prescription, if I see a queue of one is already there, I’m filled with dread. Today there were four people in front of me, and nobody behind the counter for about five minutes. When they returned, their hands were empty. More questions for the bloke at the window wanting his one prescription. Another two minutes and he was sorted, gone.
The next victims were sorted quickly, then my turn. I gave my name, the appropriate draw was opened, nope, not in there. A minute or so later after some searching somewhere round the back, it was handed to me.
The community nurse behind me said she’s in there twice a day, with a tight schedule for her visits. Going to the pharmacy makes her late for the rest of the day.

Everyone is always polite, but I almost went all Alan Ford today (sweary):

Click to expand...
Are other pharmacies available? Could you do it on-line in some way? Or by post?
 
I arrived at my local (thankfully not now) chemist with a prescription for Atrial Fibrillation, a drug called Verapamil, I felt dreadful and the Dr. had told me to get them as quickly as poss.
The assistant informed me they were too busy and were not currently accepting new prescriptions, I then had to search for hours for a chemist who could help.
I've since moved house and my local Boots is fine.
 
monkfish I read your message whilst taking my daily Verapramil also for A-F. I had the procedure to fix it in the hospital and it worked but with Covid and NHS strikes I am now very low priority to get signed off and will be taking the meds for another 6 months before my appointment to get signed off.
I hope your A-F is now under control/fixed and good luck for the future.
 
My wife is a locum pharmacist. She's been coming home for years complaining about shortages of staff, a failure to substitute for colleagues on leave or sickness. Over time, funding by government has diminished resulting in some pharmacy chains closing and at least in one case moving to Scotland where the income is better.
More and more work and fewer staff and locum rates continue to reduce despite ever more demanding workload. Yes pay reduces - so no pay rises for inflation - actual reductions in hourly rate. THis is due to govt underfunding. More services are taken on, like vaccinations and various health checks with pressure from managers on pharmacists to provide them. They bring in a little additional money from the govt.
Recently, the government decided it would be a grand idea to send patients to pharmacies for a new set of conditions. My wife is now expected to prescribe antibiotics for patients including young children. So try to imagine you are already most days juggling a huge workload with missing colleagues and a whole new set of patients being sent by 101 etc to you for treatment. Each one involves time consuming administration on poorly designed software. While you are arguing with the young woman insisting on antibiotics, the queue for other services and medicine checks is growing. People are coming in from the surgery next door complaing their prescriptions made out 10 minutes ago aren't ready. Many think a pharmacy is like a sweet shop where pharmacist merely pours out the tablets, not understanding that the doctors often make mistakes and this is the last line of defence. Pharmacists can of course be sued.
Then there are phone calls from people misplacing medicines and calls to surguries where a doctors needs to be contacted.
Then there are the drug addicts who come in, often very impatient and abusive. They have to be supervised when they have methodone for instance so they don't sell it on.
Then there's the study time. My wife has to pass regular online tests involving a lot of unpaid study time. She literally disappears for days.
Mostly now my wife works one or two days a week. She used to manage a pharmacy. I doubt many jobs pay so little for so much knowledge, responsibility and hard work. For a person so dedicated to the patients it is a disgrace. I would advise anyone with a son or daughter planning a career as a community pharmacist to think again.
 
At our surgery you can choose to have your prescription sent to one of several local pharmacies, so I get mine sent to the one that's a short walk from my house. It works fine as long as you give plenty of notice (up to 2 weeks). For anything urgent it's still best to pickup the prescription, take it to the pharmacy then come back for it in a few hours.
 
wow avinunca , that is is a worrying insight into the appalling conditions faced by many pharmacies . our very small high street probably has at least 5 pharmacies and i guess that means a lot of competition

it is worrying loading more work on them . i know one lady studying to be able to prescribe as a pharmacist , she is very happy in that aspect and ambitious for the future
 
LecsonQuad said:
monkfish I read your message whilst taking my daily Verapramil also for A-F. I had the procedure to fix it in the hospital and it worked but with Covid and NHS strikes I am now very low priority to get signed off and will be taking the meds for another 6 months before my appointment to get signed off.
I hope your A-F is now under control/fixed and good luck for the future.
Click to expand...

Thanks LQ, A/F now controlled with pills (aforementioned verapamil) and feeling fine.
 
I will say that if you need a repeat prescription it's pretty painless, you just send a request in an e-mail. If I send one on say, a Monday night, it will be ready Wednesday afternoon. My wife is on a lot of medication. We could have it delivered, but if I'm out, by due to her disability by the time she got to the front door, the guy who delivers, will have thought there was no one in and gone.
 
Both the GP and Pharmacists where we used to live were absolutely dreadful. I’ve had to wait in the pharmacist so long I’ve recovered before now.

Why am I the only person who ever needs to pay for their prescription too?

Not used pharmacist in Faversham yet but the GP has proven excellent so far.

My daughter has a thyroid condition and gets her prescriptions through the post, it’s the way forward if you’re on meds long term.

Cheers BB
 
matt j said:
I dread the day both the GP surgery and Pharmacy become a thing in my life, managed to avoid it so far but all old people seem to do is spend half their lives in either or both.
Click to expand...
Ahem. Not every old person. I’ve seen my GP just once in more than a decade, and that was for a prostate exam. Although with hindsight, maybe that was his way of deterring me from going back... and I’ve certainly never had a repeat prescription, unless you count the one with the Wine Society.

I admit we old folk love to go on about our trips to the doctor, though. Would you like to hear about my prostate exam? Well, first of all…
 
Last edited:
Avinunca said:
My wife is a locum pharmacist. She's been coming home for years complaining about shortages of staff, a failure to substitute for colleagues on leave or sickness. Over time, funding by government has diminished resulting in some pharmacy chains closing and at least in one case moving to Scotland where the income is better.
More and more work and fewer staff and locum rates continue to reduce despite ever more demanding workload. Yes pay reduces - so no pay rises for inflation - actual reductions in hourly rate. THis is due to govt underfunding. More services are taken on, like vaccinations and various health checks with pressure from managers on pharmacists to provide them. They bring in a little additional money from the govt.
Recently, the government decided it would be a grand idea to send patients to pharmacies for a new set of conditions. My wife is now expected to prescribe antibiotics for patients including young children. So try to imagine you are already most days juggling a huge workload with missing colleagues and a whole new set of patients being sent by 101 etc to you for treatment. Each one involves time consuming administration on poorly designed software. While you are arguing with the young woman insisting on antibiotics, the queue for other services and medicine checks is growing. People are coming in from the surgery next door complaing their prescriptions made out 10 minutes ago aren't ready. Many think a pharmacy is like a sweet shop where pharmacist merely pours out the tablets, not understanding that the doctors often make mistakes and this is the last line of defence. Pharmacists can of course be sued.
Then there are phone calls from people misplacing medicines and calls to surguries where a doctors needs to be contacted.
Then there are the drug addicts who come in, often very impatient and abusive. They have to be supervised when they have methodone for instance so they don't sell it on.
Then there's the study time. My wife has to pass regular online tests involving a lot of unpaid study time. She literally disappears for days.
Mostly now my wife works one or two days a week. She used to manage a pharmacy. I doubt many jobs pay so little for so much knowledge, responsibility and hard work. For a person so dedicated to the patients it is a disgrace. I would advise anyone with a son or daughter planning a career as a community pharmacist to think again.
Click to expand...
^^^^^^ totally agree, I’ve heard this sorry tale first hand for many a year.

My wife is a Pharmacy Technician, working alongside the pharmacist, she has worked for Boots for around 35 year doing this role.

There’s been a noticeable decline in staffing levels, yet more and more has been put their way. She’s been fed up for years, I’m sad for her as she has been a model employee and is now facing this at the back end of her career, it shouldn’t be like this, yet it is under the current regime.
 
Last edited:
My pharmacist is good, everything is always available and med packs are always ready.
The pharmacist we used before was awful, often not having the required stock (even though they knew the prescription was incoming) and they couldn’t even stick the packs together correctly so every time I opened a pack the pills just dropped into the bottom of the bag. Not good on a bad day.
 
Been ages since I went to a pharmacy. A couple of the local pharmacies in my relatively genteel area of central London survive and indeed massively prosper by serving up methadone in a cup. Serves as a magnet for life's unfortunates and boosts acquisitive crime.
 
I moved from the Pharmacy next to my Doctors Practice to a new one that opened in the village. I order anytime day or night via the Healthera app and the meds will be authorised and ready for me 48 hrs later and I usually collect mid to late afternoon. They were sending me emails when the prescription was ready but they’re in the middle of a refurbishment just now so I understand that’s maybe not a priority.
Never once have they ever been out of any of the 8/9 meds I require daily and happily delivered my first gout medication that afternoon when I was unable to walk.

They managed to get a bucket load of Covid tests in lockdown as well, overall very happy with them.
Just checked in Google Earth and they’re listed as “Village name” Pharmacy so unsure if the are affiliated with a larger group like my previous one.

One of the Pharmacists does drive a nice Merc AMG estate though so I guess they’re doing ok and they usually have three staff employed at the counter as well.

They’ve also taken on a Post Office counter which is handy though I’ve yet to use it!
 
Last edited:
When I lived in a village, the local GP surgery campaigned against a new pharmacy planning application being built locally. They had a pharmacy built-in to the surgery and argued that a rival pharmacy would damage their financial viability. The new pharmacy opened and a couple of years later the GP surgery folded and closed.
The closure could have been unrelated though.
 
Avinunca said:
My wife is a locum pharmacist. She's been coming home for years complaining about shortages of staff, a failure to substitute for colleagues on leave or sickness. Over time, funding by government has diminished resulting in some pharmacy chains closing and at least in one case moving to Scotland where the income is better.
More and more work and fewer staff and locum rates continue to reduce despite ever more demanding workload. Yes pay reduces - so no pay rises for inflation - actual reductions in hourly rate. THis is due to govt underfunding. More services are taken on, like vaccinations and various health checks with pressure from managers on pharmacists to provide them. They bring in a little additional money from the govt.
Recently, the government decided it would be a grand idea to send patients to pharmacies for a new set of conditions. My wife is now expected to prescribe antibiotics for patients including young children. So try to imagine you are already most days juggling a huge workload with missing colleagues and a whole new set of patients being sent by 101 etc to you for treatment. Each one involves time consuming administration on poorly designed software. While you are arguing with the young woman insisting on antibiotics, the queue for other services and medicine checks is growing. People are coming in from the surgery next door complaing their prescriptions made out 10 minutes ago aren't ready. Many think a pharmacy is like a sweet shop where pharmacist merely pours out the tablets, not understanding that the doctors often make mistakes and this is the last line of defence. Pharmacists can of course be sued.
Then there are phone calls from people misplacing medicines and calls to surguries where a doctors needs to be contacted.
Then there are the drug addicts who come in, often very impatient and abusive. They have to be supervised when they have methodone for instance so they don't sell it on.
Then there's the study time. My wife has to pass regular online tests involving a lot of unpaid study time. She literally disappears for days.
Mostly now my wife works one or two days a week. She used to manage a pharmacy. I doubt many jobs pay so little for so much knowledge, responsibility and hard work. For a person so dedicated to the patients it is a disgrace. I would advise anyone with a son or daughter planning a career as a community pharmacist to think again.
Click to expand...
That's a very worrying story. It seems to be yet another example of how the work of public service professionals is being made slowly impossible to do. Running a country with so many essential services on a knife-edge is really stupid.
 
Avinunca said:
My wife is a locum pharmacist. She's been coming home for years complaining about shortages of staff, a failure to substitute for colleagues on leave or sickness. Over time, funding by government has diminished resulting in some pharmacy chains closing and at least in one case moving to Scotland where the income is better.
More and more work and fewer staff and locum rates continue to reduce despite ever more demanding workload. Yes pay reduces - so no pay rises for inflation - actual reductions in hourly rate. THis is due to govt underfunding. More services are taken on, like vaccinations and various health checks with pressure from managers on pharmacists to provide them. They bring in a little additional money from the govt.
Recently, the government decided it would be a grand idea to send patients to pharmacies for a new set of conditions. My wife is now expected to prescribe antibiotics for patients including young children. So try to imagine you are already most days juggling a huge workload with missing colleagues and a whole new set of patients being sent by 101 etc to you for treatment. Each one involves time consuming administration on poorly designed software. While you are arguing with the young woman insisting on antibiotics, the queue for other services and medicine checks is growing. People are coming in from the surgery next door complaing their prescriptions made out 10 minutes ago aren't ready. Many think a pharmacy is like a sweet shop where pharmacist merely pours out the tablets, not understanding that the doctors often make mistakes and this is the last line of defence. Pharmacists can of course be sued.
Then there are phone calls from people misplacing medicines and calls to surguries where a doctors needs to be contacted.
Then there are the drug addicts who come in, often very impatient and abusive. They have to be supervised when they have methodone for instance so they don't sell it on.
Then there's the study time. My wife has to pass regular online tests involving a lot of unpaid study time. She literally disappears for days.
Mostly now my wife works one or two days a week. She used to manage a pharmacy. I doubt many jobs pay so little for so much knowledge, responsibility and hard work. For a person so dedicated to the patients it is a disgrace. I would advise anyone with a son or daughter planning a career as a community pharmacist to think again.
Click to expand...

Sounds like everything is going to government plans.
 
I was a hospital pharmacy technician from 1975 to 1984 in the days when we manufactured our own creams and medicines including injectables.
Tablets were counted using using a pill triangle and all labels were typed out on a typewriter. ( we used to change the keys around on the typewriter as we could type automatically but the pharmacists had to look as they were less familiar so typed gibberish )
I then moved on to radiotherapy as it was more of a challenge.
After I took early retirement from the NHS I worked part time in a supermarket pharmacy for some beer money and to keep me interested, They did not recognise my old qualifications so could only do counter service and was not allowed to dispense, I often had to correct the dispensers when they did not know what some of the abbreviations were. I had to enroll for a Jack and Jill online "course "
The prescriptions are automatically printed out along with all of the labels, these are then just stuck on a box from stock and that's it done ready for checking by a pharmacist.
My supermarket ran for a year without a staff pharmacist before I gave up, relying solely on locums who often did not turn up so we had to close that session. I worked with a pharmacist some evenings who would not check any of the leftover prescriptions as he was watching footy on his laptop, supermarket managers were not interested as he was the only one that they could get and would have to close otherwise.
I left as I was fed up having to deal with patients who had put in their prescriptions a week ago and they wanted to know why they were not ready.
It was a total sh*t show.
Rgds
Stuart
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top