Wrong medication issued

archer5

Wrong medication. Am I wrong to expect that if I pay for my prescription once and l leave the chemist only to find out that evening that the medication is not a liquid but a cream. Am I wrong to believe that the cream still boxed and un-opened could be swopped or if as in my case there is some kind of petty cash from the surgery to reimburse me to pay for the new and hopefully correct prescription. I pay for my medication and the chemist would not exchange and the surgery said they cant help. I brought the container with me. I showed the doctor. The doctor prescribed the wrong format. The end result is I feel annoyed at having to pay twice for an error I did not cause. I think it is the customer service element which bugs me most. I felt caught between two dinosaurs. Both un-relenting.

chocdonuty

The chemist would have to dispense what was on the prescription, they cannot change it. If it is correct that have fulfilled their part of the transaction correctly.
However a good chemist would contact the doctors (or you could do this) and get them to change the prescription for the right one and only pay the one charge. All depends on the pharmacys policy and of course their goodwill if the prescription is correct.
Any medication returned to a pharmacy has to be destroyed in case it has been stored incorrectly or fiddled with (remember the nurofen plus case a few years back?)therefore they will be out of pocket and sometimes medication can be very expensive, much more so than the charge you actually pay (and vice versa)

hollydays

Get the practice manager to call you.

InsideInsurance

archer5 wrote: »

I pay for my medication

You pay for your medication or you mean you pay the prescription charge?

From what you say your doctors made the mistake and so the ball sits squarely in their court. Register a complaint with them and the practice manager will be in contact.

Pollycat

archer5 wrote: »

Wrong medication. Am I wrong to expect that if I pay for my prescription once and l leave the chemist only to find out that evening that the medication is not a liquid but a cream. Am I wrong to believe that the cream still boxed and un-opened could be swopped or if as in my case there is some kind of petty cash from the surgery to reimburse me to pay for the new and hopefully correct prescription. I pay for my medication and the chemist would not exchange and the surgery said they cant help. I brought the container with me. I showed the doctor. The doctor prescribed the wrong format. The end result is I feel annoyed at having to pay twice for an error I did not cause. I think it is the customer service element which bugs me most. I felt caught between two dinosaurs. Both un-relenting.

I'm not surprised that the chemist would not exchange, they supplied the medicine stated on the prescription.

You need to take this up with the surgery - contact your practice manager.

Kesstra

As someone who has worked in the dispensary at a chemist, the pharmacist can ONLY prescribe what is on the prescription!

No matter if you do or do not pay for your prescriptions, what is on the script is what gets dispensed. UNLESS there is an obvious mistake with dosage etc.

You need to call the Surgery as it's their mistake.
It's not the chemist's mistake, it is the GP.

I understand you feel caught between the two, but this really isn't the chemists fault.
As a last note, always check your medicines before you leave! The Chemist could have refunded you, and given you the prescription back to take back to the GP so you could get it changed.

agrinnall

Kesstra wrote: »

As someone who has worked in the dispensary at a chemist, the pharmacist can ONLY prescribe what is on the prescription!

Easier now that prescriptions are printed. Back in the dim and distant past when doctors hand wrote prescriptions I was dispensed slimming pills rather than strong pain killers because the pharmacist misread what the doctor had written - the GP was rather puzzled when I went back to say that these pills aren't working!

Kesstra

agrinnall wrote: »

Easier now that prescriptions are printed. Back in the dim and distant past when doctors hand wrote prescriptions I was dispensed slimming pills rather than strong pain killers because the pharmacist misread what the doctor had written - the GP was rather puzzled when I went back to say that these pills aren't working!

:eek: :rotfl:
I recently saw my surgeon's writing while in hospital. I thought mine was bad and I thought the old *joke* was long gone.
How wrong I was!
Speaking of scripts.


They are now bringing in paperless prescriptions! I can't see how this will work, as many of us are not on monthly repeats/ have medication changes a lot/ OR use different pharmacies depending on where we are at any given point.

I use 3 chemists currently whichever is more convenient for me on my way home.

When my grandfather was in Hospital in South London, I was getting both mine and my partner's scripts that side of London. On the weekends I'd be getting them in East London.

How on earth will this work for workers, who might for example work in London but live outside of London.

Having said that and a nod to OPs problem,
Will this perhaps lessen GP's mistakes!?? Or in fact make it worse because you will not see the script until you go into chemist.
Chemist then has to send script back over to GP. Patients endures longer waits for *computer* error.

To the OP:
How do you feel about Electronic Prescriptions? Would this have made this current mistake worse or better?