BOOTS pharmacy rant!

MrsAtobe

My local Boots is a complete nightmare as well. I normally pop my script into the surgery on a Monday, and don't go to Boots to collect it until the following Saturday, and still have to wait for them to fill it. Either that, or they give me an items owing slip. !!!!!!?? You've had two days at least to get the extra in, and the slip always says I can collect the items owing after noon on Monday, grrrr.

Lou67

WOW thanks everyone! I literally cannot BELIEVE the amount of people who have issues with Boots Pharmacy. It's like almost everyone who goes in there! Like what the hell?! What is their problem? And I wonder if it's worth complaining?

RosiPossum

battleborn wrote: »

They also have a nack of being on a break, when working people go to collect prescriptions at a conveinient time like lunch time.

A pharmacist should never be closed during opening hours.

Pharmacists are working people too, they have as much right to a lunch break as anyone else!


In regards to why it takes so long: I think the assistants check the name and dosage of the drug, collect it and put it with the label. The pharmacist then has to check that the prescription has been filled out correctly, that the dosage is normal (eg. 10mg rather than 10 mcg), that the correct medicine has been chosen, the correct quantity, that they are all in date, and a few other things!

Besides that, they also have to make up the home delivery prescriptions, the dosette boxes, order stocks, audit various things....

I agree that it's frustrating, and saying 10 mins when it's actually 40 isn't on. But pharmacists are entitled to a break and they have a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes.

Lou67

RosiPossum wrote: »

Pharmacists are working people too, they have as much right to a lunch break as anyone else!


In regards to why it takes so long: I think the assistants check the name and dosage of the drug, collect it and put it with the label. The pharmacist then has to check that the prescription has been filled out correctly, that the dosage is normal (eg. 10mg rather than 10 mcg), that the correct medicine has been chosen, the correct quantity, that they are all in date, and a few other things!

Besides that, they also have to make up the home delivery prescriptions, the dosette boxes, order stocks, audit various things....

I agree that it's frustrating, and saying 10 mins when it's actually 40 isn't on. But pharmacists are entitled to a break and they have a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes.

I don't buy one word of this. If the pharmacists ARE busy and their job is SO confusing and difficult, then why not say the prescription will take several hours instead of 10 minutes? And how come every other pharmacist, like the local one that many people have mentioned, manages to do it OK in the 10 to 15 minutes promised, but Boots seem incapable?

RosiPossum

As I said, I don't believe saying 10 mins when it will be much longer is okay at all. Just replying to the questions asking why does it take so long.
Boots may be very busy with a lot of delivery and repeat prescriptions, I don't know.

Techhead_2

I echo everyone else's experience of Boots pharmacy. I think it's indicative of a general problem with Boots, an obsession with processes and procedures rather than customers.

The assistant says 15 minutes because that is the target; the pharmacist takes their break because the guidelines say they have enough staff and this is the right time to take the break. This carries on regardless of the actual situation.

I can give other examples, they won't accept a faulty return because the tube is open (the sealed end was open - that was the fault!). The supervisor that won't take a voucher for shower gel because the shower gel is considered men's toiletries not shower gel.

Really , Boots need to have a good look at the way they run their stores.

nickcc

Our local Boots Pharmacy has a Pharmacist and one assistant on duty whenever you visit but closes for lunch, our local independent Pharmacy, attached to the health centre, has the Pharmacist and four assistants whenever you visit and never closes for lunch as they have a part time Pharmacist to cover, perhaps Boots should follow their example if they wish to retain the business.

battleborn

nickcc wrote: »

Our local Boots Pharmacy has a Pharmacist and one assistant on duty whenever you visit but closes for lunch, our local independent Pharmacy, attached to the health centre, has the Pharmacist and four assistants whenever you visit and never closes for lunch as they have a part time Pharmacist to cover, perhaps Boots should follow their example if they wish to retain the business.

100% agree, someone should cover lunch breaks, its common sense to understand that lunchtime will be the busiest time as its convienient for working people to go get there prescriptions.

elsien

Have any of you who have issues actually complained to Boots at any point? It's no use letting rip on here if no-one is actually telling them there's a problem.

Azari

battleborn wrote: »

A pharmacist should never be closed during opening hours.

The pharmacist isn't closed, the pharmacy is.

And it's a legal requirement that the pharmacist be present when prescriptions are being handed out. (Quite why, I don't know, as for run of the mill prescriptions, if they have been either dispensed or checked by the pharmacist what difference would it make if a packet was handed out when the pharmacist was out of the building compared to being in discussion with a patient in the consulting room?)

So if your pharmacy is not large enough to warrant two pharmacists it will have to close at some point for the pharmacist's lunch break. This is usually made quite clear on signs.

As to why it takes ten minutes when there appears to be no one else around, there are several reasons:

1) Each prescription has to be checked by a different person than the person who dispensed it. If the pharmacy is genuinely idle, there may be no qualified checker available until one is moved from other duties.

2) Just because there is no one waiting does not mean that they are not working on other people's prescriptions. There are presumably (one hopes) procedures to go through if you interrupt work on one prescription to start another in order to avoid errors so they won't just drop one thing to dispense yours.

3) They usually ask you if you want to wait. If you say 'no - I'll do some other shopping', the 'ten minutes' quoted is probably a standard estimate to allow them to do the job allowing for what else is happening, and is more intended to let you know it will be around ten minutes rather than, e.g., an hour