Lloyds Pharmacy Malpractice

saintscouple

I'm still raging about this one, so hopefully posting here will help get it off my chest.

A bit about myself - I suffer from sever depression / anxiety and have panic attacks caused by agoraphobia.

Last Friday my wife handed in my prescription, which has 3 items of medication, to my local Lloyds pharmacy.
Yesterday (the following Wednesday), my wife went to the pharmacy to collect my prescription, and came back with the stapled shut bag as normal.
It wasn't till she got home, and I opened the bag to find only 2 of the 3 items were present.
I checked the repeat prescription, which showed the 3rd item was on the original prescription, so duly phoned the chemist to find out what was going on.

I was told that they don't have the item in stock, and that was why it was missing.

They agreed that they should have told my wife this, and given her a slip so that she may redeem the missing item when it comes back in to stock.

Upon questioning when it would come back in to stock, the reply was we don't know, as there has been a problem with supply for the last 3 months. (Even though i get a repeat prescription for the same items, every month, for the last 6 months from them with no problems.)

I was told, as they had supplied us with 2 items from the prescription they can't give that back to us, so the only other option available to us would be to get another prescription from the GP and go elsewhere.

So I phoned my surgery, who advised that this was incorrect - as Lloyds had supplied us with 2 of the items, they would now claim the whole prescription, thus they must supply all 3 items. It was verified that they should have informed us prior to dispense of the missing item and given us the choice of going elsewhere.
(Our surgery also isn't taking any appointments as 2 of the GP's are stranded abroad.)

Next port of call, I phoned the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, who again confirmed the correct procedure was to offer us the choice of waiting, or handing the prescription back and going elsewhere. By not doing so, i was told this was malpractice and they are sending me a complaint form they want me to fill in. They couldn't help any further with getting the missing item of medication, but suggested i phoned the pharmacy back and ask if they can source it from another local store.

I phoned back Lloyds, and was promptly told that is something they don't do, and to phone tomorrow afternoon to see if it's arrived.
They admitted that they should have given us a choice of having the prescription back, but there is nothing they can do now, and they refused to take back the medication they have given us in exchange for the prescription.

So there you are, here i am with 1 medication missing because Lloyds seem to need to 'cash in' prescriptions by whatever means possible, showing no care to their customers. Leaving me with no option but to sit and wait for them to get stock.

Apparently you can get off the shelf medications for certain conditions direct from the pharmacy in an emergency. I was told this by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, but unfortunately my medication does not qualify.

That's me done, the sun's coming up, hopefully it will be a good day.

dinglebert

Your other option is as you will need the medication is to get back in contact with your practice. You do not need an appointment either put in writing what has happened and request a prescription for the drug missing or ask them to phone you at home.

souwesterly

I think you're a victim of unfortunate circumstances and an easily-made error rather than malpractice.
I feel that we all assume that everyone we have dealings with will be perfect....while quickly overlooking our own imperfections.

If you're a regular at your chemist then surely you have a reasonable 'relationship' with them - as I have with my local chemist.
If something is missing then they usually give me a 'missing item' slip and within a few days, it's all sorted. I doubt that you weren't told about the missing item on purpose.

When I've been prescribed something that is no longer available, the chemist has rung the surgery for me and sorted things out.
When an item on a prescription came in late a few months ago, one of the staff dropped it off to me in the evening on her way home. (Probably shouldn't have done so - but that's what 'friends' are for!)

Sorry, I feel that less moaning and more smiles might have resolved this one better.

And, as has been said, a phone call to your surgery was all that was necessary.....or even an email to them. I can "talk" to my doctor by email - can't you?
And it sounds obvious that you do need to talk to your doctor to change the prescription to something that is available.....

My apologies if this doesn't make you feel any less depressed!!

moonrakerz

maninthestreet

souwesterly wrote: »

I think you're a victim of unfortunate circumstances and an easily-made error rather than malpractice.
I feel that we all assume that everyone we have dealings with will be perfect....while quickly overlooking our own imperfections.

If you're a regular at your chemist then surely you have a reasonable 'relationship' with them - as I have with my local chemist.
If something is missing then they usually give me a 'missing item' slip and within a few days, it's all sorted. I doubt that you weren't told about the missing item on purpose.

When I've been prescribed something that is no longer available, the chemist has rung the surgery for me and sorted things out.
When an item on a prescription came in late a few months ago, one of the staff dropped it off to me in the evening on her way home. (Probably shouldn't have done so - but that's what 'friends' are for!)

Sorry, I feel that less moaning and more smiles might have resolved this one better.

And, as has been said, a phone call to your surgery was all that was necessary.....or even an email to them. I can "talk" to my doctor by email - can't you?
And it sounds obvious that you do need to talk to your doctor to change the prescription to something that is available.....

My apologies if this doesn't make you feel any less depressed!!

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society seem to disagree with you.

Laz123

Now planes are flying again the other 2 doctors should now be back. I'd go back to the surgery and ask for a script for the 1 missing item.

I wouldn't be using Lloyds again though.

david39

I've had a problem not dissimilar with Lloyds.

I have taken a prescription in to them and, when returning to collect it, have been told it was out of stock and there was a supply problem, they hadn't had any for weeks and they didn't know when any more would be coming in.
My wife then took the prescription to another pharmacy near where she works in a nearby town and got served straight away. When she brought the package back to me, it was another branch of Lloyds. It seems strange that one branch had been out of stock for weeks while another nearby still had it available.

Also - don't you find chemists in general are terribly slow on service these days? Both of the main chemists in our town (Numark and Lloyds) keep you waiting ages to even take the prescription from you, let alone dispense it, as the assistants are always ferreting about behind the scenes in the dispensary. They totally ignore the customers waiting at the counter. I never buy anything in there, it takes too long to leave a prescription, let alone get served for something I can buy elsewhere.
Tesco's are building a new superstore nearby, so I hope they have a dispensary in it - it might make the ordinary chemists in town sit up and take notice.

souwesterly

maninthestreet wrote: »

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society seem to disagree with you.

Well, they would, wouldn't they!

In an ideal world everything is perfect.
Unfortunately even humans are imperfect and a) make mistakes and b) expect other humans to be perfect.

And when it comes to Societies and other Authorities, of course they have their rules which (they say) must be adhered to, come hell or high water.
But the rules are essentially put in place to cover blatant malpractices - and regrettably they open the door to everyone to make a claim against minor errors caused by exhaustion, stress, senior moments, etc, etc.

This particular matter comes about from someone (probably) forgetting to tell someone that an item was missing.
Is that worthy of a claim, a prosecution or a malpractice suit?
I think not.

(Have you ever ordered a home delivery from Asda, Tesco or similar and found an item missing?
Did you automatically contact Trading Standards to complain about malpractice? LOL)

I'm afraid that I come fom the 'old school' whereby I accept that things don't always go according to plan.
And so I tend to laugh them off and find a way round the problem rather than reach for my solicitor's number.
I live a happier and less stressful life that way.

Moonrakerz - I do like your eloquent visual representation. As they say, "A picture speaks a thousand words."

souwesterly

david39 wrote: »

Also - don't you find chemists in general are terribly slow on service these days?

No!!

My Lloyds pharmacy will make out my order as I wait and it's never more than 5 - 10 minutes at worst. Considering that they have to check EVERYTHING and do all the right things before releasing your packet to you, that time delay isn't a problem or their fault.

Coincidentally I've recently changed surgeries (MY doctor retired and I thought that a change wouldn't be a bad idea) and the 'new' surgery has a Boots chemist attached.
And they're just as quick - and there's usually a member of staff there who'll find time to have a chat to help pass the time.

No problems with the service from my chemists at all.

Perhaps I just live in a 'lucky' part of the country.....!

david39

"My Lloyds pharmacy will make out my order as I wait and it's never more than 5 - 10 minutes at worst. Considering that they have to check EVERYTHING and do all the right things before releasing your packet to you, that time delay isn't a problem or their fault."

Hi Souwesterly,
I was actually complaining about the length of time it takes them to acknowledge that I am standing at the counter and to accept the prescription from me in the first place.

There is a doctor's surgery nearby that has a separate pharmacy that opens until 10.00 pm - it's just a little awkward to get to, which is why I don't use it. However, last week, after leaving my own doctor's surgery, it was the only one open, so I went there and the service was excellent - I think I might take your advice and become a regular customer there - I might be able to reduce my blood-pressure tablets then!

souwesterly

Hi David,
Sorry if I misread your comment.......but the same applies there too. Both my pharmacies are really quick at 'grabbing' prescriptions from customers - we even get to queue-jump ahead of cash-paying customers.

Forgot another good thing my 'new' surgery and chemst do. If I order on-line or by phone, then the prescription is sent direct to the chemist and I can pick it up from them not more that 24 hours later.

Definitely David, become a 'regular' with your alternative surgery/chemist - perhaps we can share our B P pills then!