Prescription charge?

leitmotif

I was recently prescribed some medication. After collecting my medication from the pharmacy, it emerged that the pharmacist had opened the bottle and broken the tamper-evident seal. Not being comfortable with this, I took the medication back. I wanted to take my prescription to another pharmacy. Apparently that's not possible, and one can't get a refund of the prescription fee if it's already been processed, even if one isn't happy with the quality of what has been provided. Is this true? Surely medication from a pharmacy counts as goods in the eyes of consumer rights legislation?

CardinalWolsey

I would expect that to be standard practice, i.e. the pharmacist opening the medicine and verifying what it contains. What was their response when you initially queried why the tamper-proof seal had been broken?

firefox1956

Why on earth would the pharmacist open the bottle ??
Tamper proof seals are there for a reason.
Anybody in the pharmacy could have tampered with the contents after the
pharmacist broke the seal.
I would have done the same & taken it back.
The pharmacist should have replaced the medication & stood the loss if there was one.
My opinion only.............

unforeseen

firefox1956 wrote: »

Why on earth would the pharmacist open the bottle ....

Simplest answer to that and something quite common is that the number in the bottle were more or less than that prescribed.

Quite a lot of stuff is packaged in 30s but prescribed in 28 day amounts

BorisThomson

firefox1956 wrote: »

Why on earth would the pharmacist open the bottle ??
Tamper proof seals are there for a reason.
Anybody in the pharmacy could have tampered with the contents after the
pharmacist broke the seal.
I would have done the same & taken it back.
The pharmacist should have replaced the medication & stood the loss if there was one.
My opinion only.............

Most pharmacy items are stored in the pharmacy in much larger quantities, which are then dispensed in the relevant smaller quantity. On your reasoning we shouldn't get anything from the pharmacy in case of tampering?!!

The pharmacist did nothing wrong OP, in fact they did their job by ensuring the correct amount of the item was dispensed to you. You have no grounds for complaint or refund.

leitmotif

Some medication is counted out and dispensed by the pharmacist in plastic bottles that don't have tamper-evident seals. Some medication, on the other hand, comes in bottles (or blister packs) with tamper-evident seals. There'll be a reason why those seals are there. Furthermore, any excess pills taken out are presumably stored separately to await the next customer. How does one know how long it's been since they were opened? The pills I were prescribed say use within 60 days of opening. I have no idea how long the bottle has been open for.

Fosterdog

leitmotif wrote: »

Some medication is counted out and dispensed by the pharmacist in plastic bottles that don't have tamper-evident seals. Some medication, on the other hand, comes in bottles (or blister packs) with tamper-evident seals. There'll be a reason why those seals are there. Furthermore, any excess pills taken out are presumably stored separately to await the next customer. How does one know how long it's been since they were opened? The pills I were prescribed say use within 60 days of opening. I have no idea how long the bottle has been open for.

That is the sort of thing the pharmasict is there for, they will have incredibly strict stock control and everything will be precisely labelled and dated. Unless it’s something non prescription and bought off the shelf it is standard practice (at least where I live in a few different pharmacies) for them to open and double check everything before dispensing.

k3lvc

leitmotif wrote: »

Some medication is counted out and dispensed by the pharmacist in plastic bottles that don't have tamper-evident seals. Some medication, on the other hand, comes in bottles (or blister packs) with tamper-evident seals. There'll be a reason why those seals are there. Furthermore, any excess pills taken out are presumably stored separately to await the next customer. How does one know how long it's been since they were opened? The pills I were prescribed say use within 60 days of opening. I have no idea how long the bottle has been open for.

In which case nothing else anyone here is saying will help you - you've been told you won't get a refund on the prescription fee so now it's up to you to take your money elsewhere in future and find a pharmacist that doesn't mind you looking over his/her shoulder triple checking everything

unforeseen

The pharmacist will be aware and have a system in place to track dates etc for medicines.

Having checked my medication then without fail each different tablet has an expiry date at least 2 years in the future, so worrying about expiry dates is pointless.

unforeseen

leitmotif wrote: »

Some medication is counted out and dispensed by the pharmacist in plastic bottles that don't have tamper-evident seals. Some medication, on the other hand, comes in bottles (or blister packs) with tamper-evident seals. There'll be a reason why those seals are there. Furthermore, any excess pills taken out are presumably stored separately to await the next customer. How does one know how long it's been since they were opened? The pills I were prescribed say use within 60 days of opening. I have no idea how long the bottle has been open for.

What are the tablets that only have a 60 day shelf life? It sounds more like you have an OTC product on prescription especially since it had a tamperproof seal

unforeseen

I assumed this was tablets BUT if it is something like Amoxicillin liquid then this comes in bottles with tamperproof seals.

However it comes as a powder and the pharmacist needs to open the bottle to add the required amount of water to make it up for use.

There are a number of medicines like this as powder form has a lot longer shelf life than ready made suspensions.

In this case the tamperproof seal proves to the pharmacist that the correct amount of the medicine was in the bottle before mixing.