GP refuses to deal with online pharmacies

ElizabethBaldwin

My (dispensing) GP surgery refuses to deal with online pharmacies, thereby forcing its patients to attend in person to collect medication or prescriptions - during a pandemic! Does anyone else have this problem?

JJ_Egan

No

GP has electronic accounts set up with three local chemist for years .

DiddyDavies

JJ_Egan said:

No

GP has electronic accounts set up with three local chemist for years .

I don't think that's the problem the OP is having.
Even if a GP has an electronic account set up with a local pharmacy, you might still have to visit that pharmacy to collect your medication and it appear that this is what the OP wishes to avoid.

There are online pharmacies such as this one:
https://www.well.co.uk/prescriptions/prescription-delivery
where your GP fills out the prescription and it goes directly to the online pharmacy and they then post the medication to you so you don't have to collect it from a chemist or from the GP's practice if they also dispense the medication.

olgadapolga

ElizabethBaldwin said:

My (dispensing) GP surgery refuses to deal with online pharmacies, thereby forcing its patients to attend in person to collect medication or prescriptions - during a pandemic! Does anyone else have this problem?

It sounds like your GP is like my mother's - they refuse to send any prescriptions to any pharmacy other than the one attached to the surgery, be it online or bricks and mortar.

As far as I am aware (although happy to be corrected) the GP shouldn't do this and should allow you to collect your prescription from whichever pharmacy you choose - this includes having your prescriptions delivered from an online pharmacy.

When I've had issues over prescriptions, etc., I've always contacted the CCG of the area to explain the problem. The CCG will usually deal with the GP practice and sort the problem out. 

If you type the name of your surgery along with "which CCG" into Google then it should tell you which CCG you need to contact. My local one has a facebook page so I just message them through that.

sheramber

In my rural area the GP dispenses the prescription so you collect it from the receptionist    after your appointment. 
For a repeat prescription you collect  the dispensed prescription from the surgery or they can be sent to a local shop for collection- my surgery was 16 miles away.
During the pandemic to collect from the surgery you phone the surgery when you are there and it is brought out to you.

[Deleted User]

 In liverpool the CCG stopped the use of both online pharmacies and pharmacies ordering medicines on your behalf. 

 This they said was to stop waste. Pharmacies ordering your full repeat prescription when you were not using them all and probably binning some of them. 

 You must order yourself in person or using the NHS or patient access app. can then be sent electronically to a brick pharmacy where either they deliver or you collect. 

flashg67

_shel said:

 In liverpool the CCG stopped the use of both online pharmacies and pharmacies ordering medicines on your behalf. 

 This they said was to stop waste. Pharmacies ordering your full repeat prescription when you were not using them all and probably binning some of them. 

 You must order yourself in person or using the NHS or patient access app. can then be sent electronically to a brick pharmacy where either they deliver or you collect. 

Wasn't aware medicines could be send without GP approval. I use an online pharmacy and order via the NHS app, which goes initially to my GP to approve.  So the pharmacy can't order on my behalf - they'll only send medicines out once the GP has approved the prescription

ElizabethBaldwin

Thanks all for your replies. I have recently moved to this area and at my old address I could order my prescriptions through online pharmacies which would post the medications to me after acquiring my GP’s approval. It worked fantastically well and to be now forced to go into the GP’s dispensary in person during a pandemic feels like a real backwards step. My new GP’s surgery will not deal with online pharmacies because it wants the profit from prescriptions for itself. Given that online pharmacies also save the NHS money because of their economies of scale, and that they don’t cause people to leave home, I would say my new GP’s surgery should be trying to do their bit to help people stay home and protect the NHS also

JJ_Egan

(. Given that online pharmacies also save the NHS money because of their economies of scale)

Thats not at all true  NHS purchasing has economies of scale .

GPs are open and safer than shopping .

Much is now carried out by phone so no need to visit surgery's .Many chemist also deliver now local prescriptions .

Where would your GP profit from prescriptions ?? are they also a Chemist .

 Your  GP not using NHS electronic service ??

No need to see GP order prescription via web oked by GP then sent electronically to your registered local chemist .

https://support.patientaccess.com/

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

My GP sends his prescriptions to the local Pharmacy, that employs 4 people in my small town. They deliver to the vulnerable the same day, if required. The online versions cannot do this and certainly does not employ four people in my town!

olgadapolga

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth said:

My GP sends his prescriptions to the local Pharmacy, that employs 4 people in my small town. They deliver to the vulnerable the same day, if required. 

You are, in that case, very lucky to have such a pro-active local pharmacy. The ones local to me are not that good and take a couple of days to process ANY prescription, let alone a more urgent one. The one attached to my mother's surgery takes a week to process prescriptions (and that, coupled with a two week wait for an appointment with the GP, means that she has to plan to be ill several weeks in advance).

The online ones are very good for repeat prescriptions though, in my experience.

And whilst the online ones do not employ four people in your small town, they certainly employ many people in other towns.