stress @ Lloyds

[stress@lloyds]

Does anyone have the same experience in LLoyds recently? TOO MUCH TO DO, ABSOLUTELY SHORT STAFFING AND NO SUPPORT FROM AREA MANAGER or is is just my bad experience?
I started working in a branch recently where you have almost no dispensers, so you need to check, label and disepense by yourself, deliver the services and deal with problems and customer queries....is getting extremely a nightmare now, and area manager does not want to do any thing about it......ARE THEY TRYING TO SAVE MONEY EVERYWHERE NOW. It just seems very desperate to me and like the wrong end to start saving.............ANY SIMILAR EXPERIENCES???? PLEASE LET ME KNOW

[johnep]

Absolutely standard experience.
johnep

[dippsy]

Yep .... Although I only locum for them for a maximum of a day a week now. They offered me a job but I was quite firm in my refusal!

[pharmer7]

Boots were the worst for this kind of thing, but looks like Lloyds are going down that path as well now.

[Pharmanaut]

Standard practice in some of the multiples.
Responses are that we have all got to do more with less and that you have to work more efficiently.
Usually this means shifting the clerical tasks into extra out of hours work so that you can keep up with the prescription flow.
Danger is - they can see you are coping so your staff hours are at risk of another cut.

The only thing that matters is the spreadsheet and waiting times.

[stress@lloyds]

But isn't that a risk for patients? I mean, high probabibility of dispensing errors, bad advice etc..... I know some of the pharmacies are even starting now to get three people to check a prescription and at Lloyds not even double checking is working.....Actually it is scary working there at the moment

[jzd4rma]

I work as a Lloyds pharmacist and know what it exactly feels like!

[dippsy]

But isn't that a risk for patients? I mean, high probabibility of dispensing errors, bad advice etc..... I know some of the pharmacies are even starting now to get three people to check a prescription and at Lloyds not even double checking is working.....Actually it is scary working there at the moment

Three people may be excessive but one person checking and dispensing is not enough. It all comes down to money at the end of the day (and the quality of the pharmacy manager to stand up and be heard). The two major culprits for dumping you in it and expecting you to get on with it from my experience over the many years is both Boots and Lloyds.

It has got worse since the introduction of the responsible pharmacist regulations which effectively place the responsibility for the running of the pharmacy on the pharmacist. It effectively negates the bulk of the responsibility from the superintendent. So if you don't have the staff, tough!

I also work at a branch of Morrisons. I have to say that their checking processes are amazing and I have not seen an organsiation (especially a multiple) take such a proactive measure to reduce mistakes. They even shut the pharmacy if there are less than two people who are qualified to check prescriptions. Apparently this has really reduced their error rates - and the patients and customers also love the tending nature of the staff that the culture has produced.

Many patients are now voting with their feet and actively moving their business from the Boots down the road because of the quality of service, waiting times etc. This has put the Boots down the road in a bit of c*** as because of the lack of business, they are cutting hours for staff even more!! Completely insane at a time when they should be investing in that business.

[Pharmanaut]

Three people may be excessive but one person checking and dispensing is not enough. It all comes down to money at the end of the day (and the quality of the pharmacy manager to stand up and be heard). The two major culprits for dumping you in it and expecting you to get on with it from my experience over the many years is both Boots and Lloyds.

It has got worse since the introduction of the responsible pharmacist regulations which effectively place the responsibility for the running of the pharmacy on the pharmacist. It effectively negates the bulk of the responsibility from the superintendent. So if you don't have the staff, tough!

I also work at a branch of Morrisons. I have to say that their checking processes are amazing and I have not seen an organsiation (especially a multiple) take such a proactive measure to reduce mistakes. They even shut the pharmacy if there are less than two people who are qualified to check prescriptions. Apparently this has really reduced their error rates - and the patients and customers also love the tending nature of the staff that the culture has produced.

Many patients are now voting with their feet and actively moving their business from the Boots down the road because of the quality of service, waiting times etc. This has put the Boots down the road in a bit of c*** as because of the lack of business, they are cutting hours for staff even more!! Completely insane at a time when they should be investing in that business.

I thought that this loss of customers would help them in a way - they would be reducing to numbers they could cope with.
They should be thankful!

[dippsy]

Honestly never thought of it that way. Perhaps it is part of a secret plan that the two organisations have come up with!