[Linnear]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Continuity of supply. If the generic tablet changes every month it creates both confusion and distrust in some people. The patient wasn't asking for an overpriced brand of quinine sulphate (there isn't one is there?) but a generic that they were familiar with.

What about the changes being made almost every month to the tariff? A lot of cases now amount to quite a change in price.

I was suggesting that the variation between generics (and PI's) was such that it was a cause of error both for pharmacists and patients - and that issue be addressed rather than ignored.

I have never ignored a problem like this but I don't see why a person who has gained all of their knowledge from Panorama, the internet, the Daily Mail or a back of a cornflakes pack feels they shoudl be able to shout down a professional doing their job. Everyone today thinks that because they can get their opinions heard that they are valid and equal. They are not!

Because in this instance the cost would be minimal - and future profits from a new customer would ofset any initial loss.

Still doesn't excuse ignorance and abuse

Agree - but that is not the case in this specific instance - and would in any case at least in part depend on the price difference.
I get a patients gabapentin scripts changed to neurontin because the generic capsules are too big to swallow and the patients hands are too athritic to open the capsules.
No isn't an aceptable answer - a phone call to try and sort something out is IMO much better.

Jeff

I agree and if the person has a valid problem and even better a sensible attitude then I will help too. I rang a surgery every month for three months because they kept prescribing Amlodipine instead of Istin. He was a pilot and the medication they are allowed to take is catalogued if they want to keep their license. Istin is listed, generics are not so he was worried that he would lose his license.

With every situation if I have a problem with anything I have bought/received I go back and ASK them to explain where I have been mistaken or where they can put it right. If they don't then I start to get angry. But I always give them a chance to do things nicely.

Nowadays everyone seems to think that if they come in adn shout they can get everything they want and a lot of pharmacists seem to help them think this is also true in pharmacy.

Every other NHS group now operates a zero tolerance to every form of abuse but pharmacists seem to allow the public do whatever they want. Why?