Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Jeff Failure of continuity of supply - even the Dave Cousins of the NPSA has accused pharmacy of putting profits before patients in its attempts to get the cheapest generic of the day.
Failure of continuity of care - staff should have been aware of this ladies peculiarities and needs.
Jeff |
Peculiarities and needs? She threw the packet at her! Isn't that violence?
I bet if the woman was paying for her quinine, and one packet was £3 and the other £12 for the same drug, she would be happy to use the £3 one.
What do you think our hospitals use? They buy in bulk the cheapest brands they can find. Are people dropping like flies because of this? I think not, because they don't usually see the packet it came out of, just a few tablets in a small cup, so the psychological element is removed and they happily take what they are given.
If you work at a large chain of stores, you often have no choice but to use whichever brand the company tells you to, so there could have well been no way this womans favourite brand could have been got anyway.
The failure was on the customers part here. If the size of her little white tablets is so important to her, she should have made that clear to the pharmacy before she collected her prescription, and at least given them the chance to try to get them for her.
Nobody, including this young pharmacy student, should have to put up with stock being thrown at them. If you did it in Tesco's the security guard would bounce you right out of there, and so he should. It's people who are prepared to make mugs of themselves that make the public think it's ok to act in this way in a pharmacy.
As for continuity of supply, are you willing to give customers drugs that cost more then the drug tariff pays us? If it's so important, and sometimes it is, then we should be able to endorse which brand we used and get paid for it, or the Dr should foot the bill. You can't just give company money away, it's no different to stealing from them.