Common patient/customer complaints!!!!!!!!

[SolomonQ]

just to share some common experiences and you can post some of your own:

1. lady (not very regular but) comes in because she forgot to order her medication and wants to borrow tablets (technicaly illegal but common practice), pharmacists loans her some tablets (7 i think), asking her to bring in the rx next time and he can take it off that (makes a note), next time, she turns up, she hands the pharmacist a 14 tablet blister strip with 7 tablets missing. Pharmacist looks shocked/pissed off, just says we cant use these, and we end up throwing these away, pharmacist owns the pharmacy so he's the one who loses. He had no need to help her as she wasnt really a very regular patient and in doin so lost out.

2. Patients who fail to look at the label or inside the pack before coming down to the pharmacy claiming the pharmacy gave them less tablets than prescribed. i.e when the whole quantity is put in the same box e.g 84 tablets

3. patients who stand there lookin at the otc pack when the pharmacist has recommended a certain product after consulting the patient. as if trying to see if the medicine does what pharmacist said it does.

4. patients who act like theyre in argos when waiting for a rx.

5. patients who call for the pharmacist when the counter assistants would be able to help e.g. for a cough medicine, headlice, reordering of rx, etc....

6. patients who fail to undrestand the situation when a pharmacist says the prescription cannot be dispensed e.g. prescription not being signed, rx out of date especially cd ones with the new regulations coming into place,

one time some consultant was handwriting concerta XL tablets as capsules, we knew what the doctor meant but a request to re-write the prescription led to an awkward conversation where the doctor was saying they look like capsules. how do you reply to that, two of these similar prescriptions were recieved on the same day, the first one of sent back because it was out of date, although it also said capsules, this patient was a regular for that medicine and never came back so I guess that the patient took that same rx to another pharmacy and got it dispensed.

hope people can add more of their own experienced, would be funny, interesting and educating at the same time

[silnarnin]

I think it's very hard for people that don't work in pharmacy to understand what really goes on. Sometimes people have unrealistic expectations, sometimes they expect very little and leave the pharmacy very happy.

It's a bit frustrating trying to explain to the public things like they have to pay for the prescription despite being in sick pay, or the item is out of stock, but after being three years in the UK I've develop a strategy. Repetion. I just repeat myself until the patient actually listens to what I am saying. Perhaps people get distracted with my accent, and they're trying to guess where I am from?

[Fat Rafa]

had a script which was hand written for a 6 month old child, the usual saline drops and paracetamol.

underneath the 2 items the lazy GP had written "ibuprofen gel 5% x 30g, to be used by mother".

when the patient queried why he had not written a separate script for the mother the GP told the patient that he is allowed to prescribe for the mother on the childs script.

obviously, the patient was pissed of when i explained that i could not dispense the gel to her.

the GP was from out of the area, Luton i think so not sure if he has done this before.

[Jeff]

just to share some common experiences and you can post some of your own:

1. lady (not very regular but) comes in because she forgot to order her medication and wants to borrow tablets (technicaly illegal but common practice), pharmacists loans her some tablets (7 i think), asking her to bring in the rx next time and he can take it off that (makes a note), next time, she turns up, she hands the pharmacist a 14 tablet blister strip with 7 tablets missing. Pharmacist looks shocked/pissed off, just says we cant use these, and we end up throwing these away, pharmacist owns the pharmacy so he's the one who loses. He had no need to help her as she wasnt really a very regular patient and in doin so lost out.

Provide an illegal service for free and then complain that pharmacists/pharmacy isn't paid well enough. If the patient wants that service funded by the NHS or the PCT there's a local election real soon now - talk to the politicians - at the moment all there is is a non funded legal emergency suplly scheme which is chargeable.

2. Patients who fail to look at the label or inside the pack before coming down to the pharmacy claiming the pharmacy gave them less tablets than prescribed. i.e when the whole quantity is put in the same box e.g 84 tablets

Patients taking their medicines seriously - generally a good thing.

3. patients who stand there lookin at the otc pack when the pharmacist has recommended a certain product after consulting the patient. as if trying to see if the medicine does what pharmacist said it does.

As above - patients should be interested in the medicines that they take. Almost as bad as a pharmacists thinking before dispensing what the doctor has prescribed. The final check is the patient.

4. patients who act like theyre in argos when waiting for a rx.

How do people act in Argos?

5. patients who call for the pharmacist when the counter assistants would be able to help e.g. for a cough medicine, headlice, reordering of rx, etc....

Sticking to the headlice - do you confirm the diagnosis before selling - should you?

6. patients who fail to undrestand the situation when a pharmacist says the prescription cannot be dispensed e.g. prescription not being signed, rx out of date especially cd ones with the new regulations coming into place,

snip

so I guess that the patient took that same rx to another pharmacy and got it dispensed.

So the medicine could in fact be dispensed (because you assume it was) it was just that your pharmacy was unable/unwilling to sort out the technicalities with the prescriber.

Jeff

[Jeff]

or the item is out of stock

Surprisingly often the "out of stock" is a computer generated reply for the default brand/pack size. A phone call to the wholesalers/manufacturers sorts out a surprising number.

e.g. NeuPro

Jeff

[Jeff]

had a script which was hand written for a 6 month old child, the usual saline drops and paracetamol.

underneath the 2 items the lazy GP had written "ibuprofen gel 5% x 30g, to be used by mother".

when the patient queried why he had not written a separate script for the mother the GP told the patient that he is allowed to prescribe for the mother on the childs script.

obviously, the patient was pissed of when i explained that i could not dispense the gel to her.

the GP was from out of the area, Luton i think so not sure if he has done this before.

What was the problem, why couldn't you dispense it?

Jeff

[Zoggite]

What was the problem, why couldn't you dispense it?

Jeff

Jeff,
maybe you haven't read the initial post properly:
The GP has prescribed the gel intended for the mother, on the script in the baby's name! Whose PMR would you put that under?
One script= one patient; OK, in this case the mother is exempt from Rx charges since she's given birth less than 12 months ago, but what if the child was a year older, and the mum no longer exempt? Then this would obviously be fraud!

[Jeff]

Jeff,
maybe you haven't read the initial post properly:
The GP has prescribed the gel intended for the mother, on the script in the baby's name! Whose PMR would you put that under?
One script= one patient; OK, in this case the mother is exempt from Rx charges since she's given birth less than 12 months ago, but what if the child was a year older, and the mum no longer exempt? Then this would obviously be fraud!

But the child wasn't a year older - and under the childs PMR with the directions as written (does it matter as you are not likely to see the patient again - the GP was out of area - and would the ibuprofen gel appear on a PMR if you sold it to the patient?)

I don't see a problem with dispensing the script as it was described.

Jeff

[SolomonQ]

So the medicine could in fact be dispensed (because you assume it was) it was just that your pharmacy was unable/unwilling to sort out the technicalities with the prescriber.

Jeff

erm....the one that was sent away was out of date like i said. so it wasnt legal to dispense, please read carefully before pointing fingers

[Jeff]

erm....the one that was sent away was out of date like i said. so it wasnt legal to dispense, please read carefully before pointing fingers

I stand by my pointed finger ;-)
The pharmacy was unwilling or unable to sort out the technicalities with the prescriber i.e. pick up the phone and ask the prescriber if the medicine was still required and if they would supply a new legal script.

Jeff