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What’s your usual pharmacy like?

hifinutt said:
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
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One of the problems is the lack of a union. They have a professional body that my wife says fails to protect them in any meaningful way.
Pay erosion for instance would not be tolerated by a good union. Pay varies across the country. It's about supply and demand. In some areas where pharmacies have closed there are more pharmacists available and locum rates are cut to the bone. My wife was headhunted when there was a shortage of pharmacists here. In Poland pharmacies were cleaned twice a day, everyone wore clean white uniforms and everyone working in the pharmacy had a minimum educational requirement equivalent to A level. In the UK, most people staffing pharmacies apart from pharmacists, dispensers etc would otherwise work somewhere like a supermarket and are paid the minimum wage. Interestingly, Poland just like Germany and some other European countries sell herbal treatments. My wife did an extra year of study to learn about herbal medicines. Trouble in Poland is you need to do two jobs to keep head above water.
Many pharmacists in the UK have thrown the towel in over the last five or more years. I can see that accelerating.
 
I use the Lloyds Direct app on my phone so I can just order repeats as I need them and it gets delivered. Super convenient system and it's a national chain with central distribution so only once in many years have I had a supply / slow delivery problem and even that was a national shortage rather than their problem.

And crucially they are the only ones that will deliver refrigerated meds so I can get my insulin.
 
i used to deal with Lloyds chemists a lot ... they were mostly a complete pitb !!!! glad things have improved
 
Edinburgh, I use Boots in a local shopping centre, they do auto reorder and have never let me down, does look to be understaffed though and never the same pharmacist twice. Some other chemists have closed (or stopped doing prescriptions?) so there can be long queues at times as people have migrated. There is a newly relocated pharmacy across the road but when I asked it did not reorder.
 
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In my nearest town, Boots have objected to another pharmacy being opened as I guess they like the fact that they‘re the only chemist remaining in that town after the Superdrug pharmacy closed. Boots are also closing the one they have attached to my local doctors having already closed another in the same village. Lloyds also sold their last remaining stand-alone store and closed the one in the nearest Sainsbury’s. I won’t use Boots though as the queues are always too long. I also use a delivery service.
 
my pharmacy has been good in the past, but since covid is has gone down hill. Usually in the past, it took two days between ordering (by computer) and picking up the meds. In December last, two loads took 11 days. Needless to say I ran out twice. Now we have them delivered, but it is still a long wait. If we are out, they don't try to deliver again, but don't let you know they have it!

And it is a pharmacy, where phamacists work. But having been a chemist (who don't work in a pharmacy), even doctors get it wrong!
 
Just after the Brexit vote I had a suspicion that European supplies might get iffy and I got my prescriptions renewed every 6 weeks for a while (usually 8). When I got a couple of months ahead I reverted to 8 weeks and now keep my stash in the garage which is cool and dry. I do my own queue management.
 
went to local chemists yesterday to put in a prescription for my wife. She has recently has a glaucoma operation. I was told they cant supply the medicine the consultant prescribed. After querying this they cant supply it as the suppliers they use don't stock it. They have changed hands recently. What a shambles, will be going online from now on.
 
Rodrat said:
went to local chemists yesterday to put in a prescription for my wife. She has recently has a glaucoma operation. I was told they cant supply the medicine the consultant prescribed. After querying this they cant supply it as the suppliers they use don't stock it. They have changed hands recently. What a shambles, will be going online from now on.
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my wife has had several Glaucoma surgeries, the hospital gives her a prescription and the hospital pharmacy dispenses it. She has never had to use a local pharmacy for post surgical prescriptions.

At her annual assessment, the consultant writes to the GP confirming the ongoing medication requirements, GP issues the prescription. My wife uses and online pharmacy, orders her repeats through an app connected to the GP. GP approves and medicine arrives in the post.
 
She received a written prescription from the consultant at her last weekly review. This is the same as when her other eye was done. Worked fine up until now.
 
Rodrat said:
She received a written prescription from the consultant at her last weekly review. This is the same as when her other eye was done. Worked fine up until now.
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yes my wife did immediately post surgery. She just took it to the hospital pharmacy as instructed by the consultant.
 
Brown Bottle said:
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
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First para, second sentence was nit wasted on me.
 
Local Fife pharmacy is excellent. Weekly routine NOMAD with many pills is delivered by hand each Wednesday. One-offs are ordered though GP software and delivered within 2 days by hand by the same person. Couldn't be better.
 
As a balance, locally we have successful pharmacies embracing the new services, making more consulting room to do so. Recruiting successfully and where the same faces are seen each time you go in. I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom but I’m far from sure the big chains or debt ridden groups know how to reinvent themselves. Witness the Sainsbury’s exit by Lloyds.
 
Small rural GP practice here, on average 3 people in the waiting room. Very occasionally 1 person in front or behind me for 'scripts. Most often 0 people in waiting room & 0 at the desk for 'scripts. And they're foc too.

You asked..

Capt
 
I use the nhs app to order repeat scripts which I then collect from the local pharmacy - 2 minutes walk.
 
very impressed today . rather than an emergency GP appointment [ which is VERY hard to get] the local pharmacy prescribed Anti viral meds for an outbreak of shingles for family member . brilliant . saves pressure on NHS
 
Not bad here.
Local surgery, mile away, gave me an appointment this morning at 8am for 10.30am.

Nurse prescribed antibiotics that I picked up at adjoining pharmacy straight away.

It wouldn't be so easy if I actually needed surgery though.
 
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