BOOTS pharmacy rant!

butler_helen

I have complained about inaccurate service an received £20 voucher but they didn't respond to my complaint about bad service. So they do try to help.

I refuse to use them now. I had a prescription at 4wks pregnant, said I thought it should be "free" as I was pregnant and did I need anything to get the entitlement. Pharmacist said no and let me have my prescription. I went home, googled for more info and found I needed an exemption certificate! I had conned the nhs... When I went back to complain the pharmacist had ticked to say they had seen my certificate, which they hadn't. Luckily I could pay there and then but the staff didn't seem bothered, god knows how many other people had received this inaccurate advice.

Further more they have a habit in the reading broad street store of serving more than one person at once. I.e calling me over when they are still printing/sorting another prescription.

One thing they are good at is being on time, 15 minutes means 15 minutes!

pmduk

In fairness, I should say that the service varies hugely between branches. I won't use my local branch but will happily use one of the branches in a neighbouring city..

fluffnutter

I had to file a prescription on a recent bank holiday. At the one pharmacy in town which was open, the pharmacist took a two hour lunch break. I think it's perfectly reasonable to break for lunch and I'm not demanding 24 hour cover, but two hours when you're the only pharmacist for miles? Seems a bit much to me.

fluffnutter

butler_helen wrote: »

I have complained about inaccurate service an received £20 voucher but they didn't respond to my complaint about bad service. So they do try to help.

I refuse to use them now. I had a prescription at 4wks pregnant, said I thought it should be "free" as I was pregnant and did I need anything to get the entitlement. Pharmacist said no and let me have my prescription. I went home, googled for more info and found I needed an exemption certificate! I had conned the nhs... When I went back to complain the pharmacist had ticked to say they had seen my certificate, which they hadn't. Luckily I could pay there and then but the staff didn't seem bothered, god knows how many other people had received this inaccurate advice.

Not really! You're exempt from charges if you're pregnant, so you're entitled to the free prescription. The fact that you didn't have the paperwork doesn't mean you conned anyone; you just didn't follow procedure. Nor did the pharmacist and they should have known better but no one's conning anyone.

butler_helen

fluffnutter wrote: »

Not really! You're exempt from charges if you're pregnant, so you're entitled to the free prescription. The fact that you didn't have the paperwork doesn't mean you conned anyone; you just didn't follow procedure. Nor did the pharmacist and they should have known better but no one's conning anyone.

That's good to hear as I was really panicked!

Littlestars_2

I have never really had an issue with boots, maybe its just the ones where i live that are okay but i prefer to go there than the local pharmacies. The local ones you have to wait forever behind all the people getting their methadone, they makes far too many mistakes (giving someone else's prescription, wrong medication, not giving you everything on the prescription) and the staff are rude. Give me boots anytime!

RosiPossum

Ah, living in Scotland...free prescriptions

Azari

RosiPossum wrote: »

Ah, living in Scotland...free prescriptions

Although I agree it's one of the little extra touches of civilisation that the Scots enjoy (and from which our own politicians could learn - when we have the money), it really has nothing to do with the main topic of this thread.

Azari

thriftymanc wrote: »

Ok, so now I know what the pharmacists spend so much time doing, I have another genuine question. If they go to all that trouble making sure everything's correct, how come they never ask for any ID to make sure you're the person the prescription is actually for? Asking you to confirm the first line of your address isn't ID, it just means you just read it on the prescription before you handed it in! My OH gets prescriptions for me all the time and he's clearly not the same gender on the prescription. How does the pharmacist know I haven't just mugged someone outside the doctors and taken their prescription to get some random drugs?!

They may well ask for Id if you are receiving 'contentious' drugs.

It's actually even worse than you point out because you can go and collect anyone's prescription if it is already with the pharmacy. Unless the person serving you has some reason to be suspicious they will hand over a prescription to whoever asks for it. (Again, probably different with drugs that have 'street value'.)

Presumably it just isn't a problem, otherwise something would be done. But if they put obstacles in the way it could make it very dangerous if a person who could not get out of the house needed some drugs urgently.

EugeneLeonard

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.

I know right?? It's absolutely ridiculous that someone should be allowed to take time out of their 9 hour day standing at a counter to have something to eat. It's not like they legally have to be on the premises at all times like in my office round the corner.....

One time, I waited 2 days to get my repeat prescription from my doctor and when i got to the pharmacy I was told i had to wait 10 minutes because the pharmacist had popped to the toilet!!!! I couldn't believe it.....10 minutes!!!? I think they should have a bucket in the dispensary so they can just go there and then and it can be emptied at the end of the day.

ARRRRAAAGH!!! Makes me so angry - who do these people think they are? What do they actually do? Apart from check the dose is correct, the strength and type of drugs are correct for the right condition. The drugs don't interfere with anything else that i'm taking, the side effects won't be too severe, the doctor has written the prescription properly so it's legal etc.

Once there was a supposed problem with my script and I had to wait while they tried to get through to the GP to clarify that although I am allergic to penicillin they wanted me to have antibiotics with penicillin in them. The GP was already away home by that stage (only on a half day wednesdays) so i had to wait until they made a new script it the morning. How was the GP to know anyway with all these fancy drug names??

Drives me nuts. And another thing - what's with all these questions when I want to buy something advertised on the telly?? I KNOW what's good for me - the ad says it's what I need. So what if I have a heart condition and a history of asthma - Voltarol looks the business and if I want it why should someone stop me buying it?

Don't get me started on them restricting my intake of Codeine too - only selling me 32 at a time eh? I'll just go somewhere else - I'm not an addict though, I need them for my sore head.

Pharmacists - no idea what they're there for.