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Pharmacy assistants.

Grumpy Old Lemons Like You
Leothebear
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Pharmacy assistants.

#380972

Postby Leothebear » January 26th, 2021, 4:19 pm

Are they all dithering morons?

I regularly collect a prescription for my wife from our local chemist.
NEVER is the process a simple one.

Today:
Assistant: "Hello can I help you?"
Me: "Yes please, I'm here to collect a prescription for" (wife's name).
I then spell our 4 letter surname.

Assistant then turns and starts searching and says: "Do you know when it came in?"
Me: "Yesterday."

Assistant then searches some more, checks computer. Rummages through paperwork, then says: "What was the surname again?"
I tell her and spell our 4 letter surname, slowly.

Assistant then returns to computer, then rummages then examines more paperwork. Repeats all the above. Then returns to me
and says: "Sorry can you respell the surname?"

Possibly too loudly, spell my 4 letter surname for the third time.
Assistant: "Oh!" repeats name.
I make a low growling noise.

Assistant finds two largish bags and says "Address?"
I tell her my address.

Assistant (happily):"Here you are!"
Me: Thank you so much!"

Next time I shall print my 4 letter surname on a sheet of A4 in landscape and the largest font possible.

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381008

Postby UncleEbenezer » January 26th, 2021, 6:06 pm

I have a name that many people in that situation don't quite believe. If I spell it out, they expect me to continue with more letters.

Solution: show them it on a card. In such situations I'll be carrying my wallet, containing debit and credit cards with my name on.

Dod101
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381025

Postby Dod101 » January 26th, 2021, 7:12 pm

Frankly Leothebear if that is all you have to worry about given the current situation, good for you. I was waiting for the punchline.

Dod

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381066

Postby UncleEbenezer » January 26th, 2021, 11:03 pm

Dod101 wrote:Frankly Leothebear if that is all you have to worry about given the current situation, good for you. I was waiting for the punchline.

Dod

Is this not a board that invites grumps? The OP seems to me entirely appropriate. Lack of seriousness is immaterial: it was annoyance and - crucially - it shouldn't have happened.

Dod101
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381074

Postby Dod101 » January 26th, 2021, 11:46 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:
Dod101 wrote:Frankly Leothebear if that is all you have to worry about given the current situation, good for you. I was waiting for the punchline.

Dod

Is this not a board that invites grumps? The OP seems to me entirely appropriate. Lack of seriousness is immaterial: it was annoyance and - crucially - it shouldn't have happened.


Quite right. I never notice the Board the post is on. In fact I keep being reprimanded by the powers that be for posting on the wrong one. Still, with everything else that is going on, LtB's moan is quite minor.

Dod

jackdaww
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381111

Postby jackdaww » January 27th, 2021, 8:25 am

.
the OP's complaint is a valid one - i find it commonplace - often i think because the mind of the complainee is elsewhere , not on the job .

and one can always trot out the argument that there is always something worse going on ......

:roll:

Mike4
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381123

Postby Mike4 » January 27th, 2021, 9:13 am

Leothebear wrote:Are they all dithering morons?

I regularly collect a prescription for my wife from our local chemist.
NEVER is the process a simple one.

Today:
Assistant: "Hello can I help you?"
Me: "Yes please, I'm here to collect a prescription for" (wife's name).
I then spell our 4 letter surname.

Assistant then turns and starts searching and says: "Do you know when it came in?"
Me: "Yesterday."

Assistant then searches some more, checks computer. Rummages through paperwork, then says: "What was the surname again?"
I tell her and spell our 4 letter surname, slowly.

Assistant then returns to computer, then rummages then examines more paperwork. Repeats all the above. Then returns to me
and says: "Sorry can you respell the surname?"

Possibly too loudly, spell my 4 letter surname for the third time.
Assistant: "Oh!" repeats name.
I make a low growling noise.

Assistant finds two largish bags and says "Address?"
I tell her my address.

Assistant (happily):"Here you are!"
Me: Thank you so much!"

Next time I shall print my 4 letter surname on a sheet of A4 in landscape and the largest font possible.


AND.... my own related whine....

I wouldn't mind predicting this charade is repeated every month when collecting one's repeat prescription.

I'm sure back in the day doctors used to prescribe three month's-worth of a regular medicine at a time, whereas now they prescribe 28 days-worth at a time and make you apply every 28 days for a new prescription. Why does a regular medicine now have to be dispensed in such small quantities nowadays? The effect of this is a bit more paperwork for the GP practice but now the patient has to make 13 trips a year to the chemist instead of four, and queue to suffer the absent-minded behaviour of the counter staff Leothebear describes so well.

For me the nearest chemist is a 15 mile round trip away so while they do 'a bit more paperwork', I have to drive 165 miles a year further and spend perhaps 4 more hours standing around in Boots whilst they fail to find the bag and repeat simple questions. At least looking on the bright side, electronic transmission of the prescription works now, previously I used to have to collect it from the surgery, deliver it by hand to the chemist, then return to the chemist to get it. 13 times a year.

I console myself by thinking this dopey person is probably not the one who selected and dispensed the medicines, but nowadays I check carefully when I get home that what's in the bag agrees with my prescription, just in case I'm wrong about that!

First world problems, eh?

TUK020
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381212

Postby TUK020 » January 27th, 2021, 1:31 pm

Mike4 wrote:
AND.... my own related whine....

I wouldn't mind predicting this charade is repeated every month when collecting one's repeat prescription.

I'm sure back in the day doctors used to prescribe three month's-worth of a regular medicine at a time, whereas now they prescribe 28 days-worth at a time and make you apply every 28 days for a new prescription. Why does a regular medicine now have to be dispensed in such small quantities nowadays? The effect of this is a bit more paperwork for the GP practice but now the patient has to make 13 trips a year to the chemist instead of four, and queue to suffer the absent-minded behaviour of the counter staff Leothebear describes so well.

For me the nearest chemist is a 15 mile round trip away so while they do 'a bit more paperwork', I have to drive 165 miles a year further and spend perhaps 4 more hours standing around in Boots whilst they fail to find the bag and repeat simple questions. At least looking on the bright side, electronic transmission of the prescription works now, previously I used to have to collect it from the surgery, deliver it by hand to the chemist, then return to the chemist to get it. 13 times a year.

I console myself by thinking this dopey person is probably not the one who selected and dispensed the medicines, but nowadays I check carefully when I get home that what's in the bag agrees with my prescription, just in case I'm wrong about that!

First world problems, eh?


Check out Echo - a repeat prescription service run by Lloyds. You register for the service online, and get a payment mechanism set up (will accept NHS prescription prepay) and then request repeat prescription. They electronically request repeat from the GP surgery (assuming the surgery supports this, I think this also requires a form filling in at the surgery) and then deliver by post. Arrives through the mailbox. No visit to pharmacy, queuing with coughing/covidy customers, dealing with pharmacy assistants.
Hassle to set up, and still the 28 day limit, but much easier to cope with overall.

ReformedCharacter
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381221

Postby ReformedCharacter » January 27th, 2021, 1:49 pm

Mike4 wrote:
First world problems, eh?

Yes, but once it worked the other way round for me. A few decades ago I returned from working in a malaria infested part of east Africa. Whilst I was there I treated myself as needed with Chloroquine which was available for pennies from every stall in every village.

Having returned to the UK I had a relapse and 'phoned my GP out of hours. This quack who had been my GP since my early childhood failed to ask me any relevant questions such as, 'Have you had malaria before?' or 'Have you travelled abroad recently?' and basically laughed at my self-diagnosis.

A few hours later feeling rather out of sorts I got a lift to the local large hospital, where I was treated to the same nonsense, including being shouted at across the waiting room 'We've already told you we can't do anything for you'.

Fortunately one of the hospital docs agreed to give me blood test, but no treatment. The next day I had a 'phone call from my GP's receptionist who sounded a little embarrassed, asking me to come in for a prescription and to see the GP. No apology, just a pathetic joke about the fact that I was the first of his patients to suffer from malaria. Needless to say I never returned to his surgery again.

Time passed and one day my mother told me that the now retired GP had committed suicide by jumping out of a window. I couldn't muster a lot of sympathy I'm afraid.

RC

didds
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381228

Postby didds » January 27th, 2021, 2:05 pm

Mike4 wrote:For me the nearest chemist is a 15 mile round trip away so while they do 'a bit more paperwork', I have to drive 165 miles a year further and spend perhaps 4 more hours standing around in Boots whilst they fail to find the bag and repeat simple questions.


Obviously your call but this is a clear case of the benefits that online pharmacies will overcome. No queueing, no "confused pharmacy staff", no 165 miles a year in multiple return journesy.

A couple of minutes reorderign online and it arrives in the post a very few days later, and reminders sent in due course.

YMMV.

Meanwhile back to the OP - the first town optician I rejecvted was of similar ilk as the OP... only this time my surname is very disrinctive and there is nobody else within 15 miles with the same surname other than my children and mum... so a very limited opportunity for confusion. I eventually gave up after the millionth time of the repesting surname question, and then they seem to check in several places for the rpescription. how can it not be under the intial letter of my surname? What other criteria for sorting made up prescriptuions can there possibly be that makes any more sense?




didds

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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381232

Postby AleisterCrowley » January 27th, 2021, 2:12 pm

I'm surprised you got to see someone - when I visit the in-store pharmacy they mostly seem to be hanging out in the back chatting and occasionally dropping something in a white paper bag, regardless of how long the queue is...

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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381234

Postby AleisterCrowley » January 27th, 2021, 2:14 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:I have a name that many people in that situation don't quite believe. If I spell it out, they expect me to continue with more letters.

Solution: show them it on a card. In such situations I'll be carrying my wallet, containing debit and credit cards with my name on.

Ebenezer Ng ? Ebenezer Utz? Ebenezer Ars ?

Gersemi
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381302

Postby Gersemi » January 27th, 2021, 5:36 pm

Mike4 wrote:
AND.... my own related whine....

I wouldn't mind predicting this charade is repeated every month when collecting one's repeat prescription.

I'm sure back in the day doctors used to prescribe three month's-worth of a regular medicine at a time, whereas now they prescribe 28 days-worth at a time and make you apply every 28 days for a new prescription. Why does a regular medicine now have to be dispensed in such small quantities nowadays? The effect of this is a bit more paperwork for the GP practice but now the patient has to make 13 trips a year to the chemist instead of four, and queue to suffer the absent-minded behaviour of the counter staff Leothebear describes so well.

For me the nearest chemist is a 15 mile round trip away so while they do 'a bit more paperwork', I have to drive 165 miles a year further and spend perhaps 4 more hours standing around in Boots whilst they fail to find the bag and repeat simple questions. At least looking on the bright side, electronic transmission of the prescription works now, previously I used to have to collect it from the surgery, deliver it by hand to the chemist, then return to the chemist to get it. 13 times a year.

I console myself by thinking this dopey person is probably not the one who selected and dispensed the medicines, but nowadays I check carefully when I get home that what's in the bag agrees with my prescription, just in case I'm wrong about that!

First world problems, eh?


Personally if this was happening to me I'd check the prescription before I drove home . . .

TUK020
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381306

Postby TUK020 » January 27th, 2021, 5:51 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:I have a name that many people in that situation don't quite believe. If I spell it out, they expect me to continue with more letters.

Solution: show them it on a card. In such situations I'll be carrying my wallet, containing debit and credit cards with my name on.

Ebenezer Ng ? Ebenezer Utz? Ebenezer Ars ?

Ebenezer Scru?

Watis
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381324

Postby Watis » January 27th, 2021, 6:35 pm

Ebeneezer Goode?

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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381327

Postby AleisterCrowley » January 27th, 2021, 6:37 pm

Sorted...

redsturgeon
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381487

Postby redsturgeon » January 28th, 2021, 11:36 am

Ebeneezer Mother Brown

XFool
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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381764

Postby XFool » January 28th, 2021, 11:22 pm

Mike4 wrote:I'm sure back in the day doctors used to prescribe three month's-worth of a regular medicine at a time, whereas now they prescribe 28 days-worth at a time and make you apply every 28 days for a new prescription. Why does a regular medicine now have to be dispensed in such small quantities nowadays?

My repeat medication is prescribed for 84 days. So it may depend on the medicine.

Mike4 wrote:For me the nearest chemist is a 15 mile round trip away so while they do 'a bit more paperwork', I have to drive 165 miles a year further and spend perhaps 4 more hours standing around in Boots whilst they fail to find the bag and repeat simple questions.

Ah, Boots! I originally tried Boots "automatic prescription service" at my local branch. I rapidly abandoned it and reverted to getting the paper prescription from the GP myself and walked it to the nearest dispensary. Now I also do it all electronically.

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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381772

Postby Mike4 » January 28th, 2021, 11:50 pm

XFool wrote:
Mike4 wrote:I'm sure back in the day doctors used to prescribe three month's-worth of a regular medicine at a time, whereas now they prescribe 28 days-worth at a time and make you apply every 28 days for a new prescription. Why does a regular medicine now have to be dispensed in such small quantities nowadays?

My repeat medication is prescribed for 84 days. So it may depend on the medicine.


With my cynical hat on, I suspect the practice gets paid the same price by the NHS for every prescription issued, so why issue four when you can issue 13?

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Re: Pharmacy assistants.

#381784

Postby UncleEbenezer » January 29th, 2021, 2:58 am

Mike4 wrote:
XFool wrote:
Mike4 wrote:I'm sure back in the day doctors used to prescribe three month's-worth of a regular medicine at a time, whereas now they prescribe 28 days-worth at a time and make you apply every 28 days for a new prescription. Why does a regular medicine now have to be dispensed in such small quantities nowadays?

My repeat medication is prescribed for 84 days. So it may depend on the medicine.


With my cynical hat on, I suspect the practice gets paid the same price by the NHS for every prescription issued, so why issue four when you can issue 13?


Mine changed from 56 to 28 days when I moved house and registered with a new quack. They said something about NHS policy being to bring it down, for which I of course read double the cost. Though it may also have been done by area: I was much more impressed by my old quacks (in a rather poor area) than by my new ones (in a more affluent market town).


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