The Lemon Fool

My 4 weekly visit to my local pharmacy to collect prescription meds;

A sign now says "Please allow 7 working days... "
I ask if Saturday is deemed to be 'a working day'.
- told NO - Saturday is not a working day! Despite being open and trading on that day.
This seems to be the direct benefit that we enjoy from electronic advances -- that what used to be achieved in about 3 days now takes a minimum of 9 days

... another reason (amongst many) that Im happy to have moved to an online pharmacy. Fron online order to delivery is typically 3-4 days

Id rather support a local business but there are no "locally owned" pharmacists in our town, and of the three that do exist twop have proved regularly useless/unfeasible and the third (as a result?) just has massive queues all the time.

Plus this "7-9 days" stuff on top fo that.

didds

gnawsome wrote:My 4 weekly visit to my local pharmacy to collect prescription meds;

A sign now says "Please allow 7 working days... "
I ask if Saturday is deemed to be 'a working day'.
- told NO - Saturday is not a working day! Despite being open and trading on that day.
This seems to be the direct benefit that we enjoy from electronic advances -- that what used to be achieved in about 3 days now takes a minimum of 9 days

But isn't that to allow for the pharmacy passing your prescription requirements onto your Doctor's surgery, the Dr then having the time to review and authorise it, before then returning the prescription to the pharmacy, who then make it up ready for you to collect?

Point taken re Saturday being a working day; though our local pharmacy can't manage to open on a Saturday at all..

richfool wrote:...But isn't that to allow for the pharmacy passing your prescription requirements onto your Doctor's surgery, the Dr then having the time to review and authorise it, before then returning the prescription to the pharmacy, who then make it up ready for you to collect? ...

Thanks
I must have misunderstood the sequence,
I thought it went thus;
I complete the request on line direct to the surgery
The GP reviews as part of their normal working day
Sends to pharmacy - more or less instant transfer(?)
Allow pharmacist to read and - maybe - order from central distribution
Then dispense on site

Anticipating other responses, my personal limitations make using a different pharmacy or requesting home delivery as being levels of inconvenience that I do not invite. It would involve more links to an already overextended chain of events that I have seen to be already out of control

gnawsome wrote:

richfool wrote:...But isn't that to allow for the pharmacy passing your prescription requirements onto your Doctor's surgery, the Dr then having the time to review and authorise it, before then returning the prescription to the pharmacy, who then make it up ready for you to collect? ...

Thanks
I must have misunderstood the sequence,
I thought it went thus;
I complete the request on line direct to the surgery
The GP reviews as part of their normal working day
Sends to pharmacy - more or less instant transfer(?)
Allow pharmacist to read and - maybe - order from central distribution
Then dispense on site

Anticipating other responses, my personal limitations make using a different pharmacy or requesting home delivery as being levels of inconvenience that I do not invite. It would involve more links to an already overextended chain of events that I have seen to be already out of control

Ah, OK, sorry. I was thinking of my less automated system, where I take my prescription to the pharmacy myself and then return a week later to collect it. You are using a more computerised system than me. Thus I would concur with your thoughts about your system taking too long. The question now is, should I upgrade to your system?!

I posted a closely-related grump recently. You might want to read some of the responses at viewtopic.php?f=9&t=26069

richfool wrote:But isn't that to allow for the pharmacy passing your prescription requirements onto your Doctor's surgery, the Dr then having the time to review and authorise it, before then returning the prescription to the pharmacy, who then make it up ready for you to collect?

I'd agree - but that doesnt seem to be an issue for the online pharmacy I use. Presuming that my GP doesn't prioritise that over any other pharmacy, clearly (at least for me being fair) the GP turnround is not a factor overall... which leaves the pharmacy to make up the prescription and notify me.... oh, sorry, notify? No - I just had to toddle along after a suitable time frame and hope having got there it was ready! Boots allegedly have a text service but when I sued them after teh first couple of presscriptiosn it stopped "working" although the staff checked and could see i was on the system.

hey ho.

didds

richfool wrote: You are using a more computerised system than me. Thus I would concur with your thoughts about your system taking too long. The question now is, should I upgrade to your system?!

I would be most unhappy if you made any change because of anything that I have said.
If your present arrangement works for you I would consider at length how well you might keep control of events. To 'upgrade' may well involve more links that are beyond control -- if you can, stay under the radar.

gnawsome wrote:A sign now says "Please allow 7 working days... "

Perhaps their staff have recently been affected by Covid and are having to self-isolate, so the remaining staff are overworked?
Have a chat with them and you'll probably get a better understanding of their problems

--kiloran

[quote="UncleEbenezer"]I posted a closely-related grump recently. You might want to read some of the responses at viewtopic.php?f=9&t=26069[/quote]

Thanks, I have just read it through -- mindblowing. I felt the urge to respond to nearly every post but that is far beyond my capacity.
And we are supposed to believe those regiments of civil servants are intelligent beings who have our best interests at heart. It's not a lack of money it's a surfeit of stupidity at the root of these difficulties. Compounded by 'empire building' and waste.
OOH the red mist...

kiloran wrote:

gnawsome wrote:A sign now says "Please allow 7 working days... "

Perhaps their staff have recently been affected by Covid and are having to self-isolate, so the remaining staff are overworked?
Have a chat with them and you'll probably get a better understanding of their problems

--kiloran

I understand the point you make but I can't see that adding to the time to dispense will ease the difficulty. It just means that the queue just grows ever longer so that wait time will extend ad infinitum.
My experience has been that cutting the number of errors would save them considerable time.
My suggestion for cutting errors would be that they stop 'speed-reading'.
Of course I cannot prove that as a cause but the symptoms are there -- as in so many other enterprises

I must be lucky then (probably speaking too soon). My pharmacy deals with my repeat prescriptions so the sequence goes:

Pharmacy requests prescription from the GP at the renewal point
GP reviews and authorises prescription and sends (electronically) to the pharmacy
Pharmacy makes up prescription
Pharmacy texts me to say it is ready for collection
I toddle along and collect it

Or from my POV, I get a text every 8 weeks (normally to the day) saying my prescription is ready for collection. No waiting, no bother. They would even deliver if I wanted them to.

First of all, apologies for the delay in responding. I plead "brain fog" caused by a unsuitable prescription!

My surgery has changed it's systems a number of times over the last few years. Currently, the system is to request the repeat prescription by means of t'internet. (Mind you, that's become more awkward recently.) The prescription is then written, checked, whatever, by the surgery, and then is ready to be collected by, in my case, Boots, at 15:30, and not before. Boots then make it up, and text me when it it's ready to collect. Standing instructions are to allow 3 working days - I try to make it 4 weeks from start to finish.

ten0rman

ten0rman wrote:First of all, apologies for the delay in responding. I plead "brain fog" caused by a unsuitable prescription!

My surgery has changed it's systems a number of times over the last few years.... Standing instructions are to allow 3 working days - I try to make it 4 weeks from start to finish.

ten0rman

I expect that 4 weeks may be a time-scale they would be happy with (for now)
Just what excitement may we expect with the upcoming vaccination plans -- millions of people going to hundreds of places, all forms of transport running at less than 10% capacity, roads limited by the introduction of cycle lanes and all overseen by over-authorative incompetents...
oooh stop it

gnawsome wrote:

ten0rman wrote:First of all, apologies for the delay in responding. I plead "brain fog" caused by a unsuitable prescription!

My surgery has changed it's systems a number of times over the last few years.... Standing instructions are to allow 3 working days - I try to make it 4 weeks from start to finish.

ten0rman

I expect that 4 weeks may be a time-scale they would be happy with (for now)
Just what excitement may we expect with the upcoming vaccination plans -- millions of people going to hundreds of places, all forms of transport running at less than 10% capacity, roads limited by the introduction of cycle lanes and all overseen by over-authorative incompetents...
oooh stop it

You missed out 70 mile lorry parks & Brexishambles stock outs