Boots High St Pharmacy Prescription Problems

Robin9

jon81uk said:

I think your issue though is with Boots requesting the repeat prescription on your behalf? If you ask your Doctor to send the prescription to Boots and they then issue the drugs then they are meeting their obligations as a pharmacist. But any extra services such as requesting it for you at regular intervals is a commercial service they offer on top of their NHS services.

What seems to go wrong is that Boots have to send the repeats to the surgery for them to authorize -  they have not been doing that. I am not alone - my surgery told me of several people having to chase.

Can you clarify what you mean by "commercial service" please ?  That implies payment  - by the surgery ?

jon81uk

Robin9 said:

jon81uk said:

I think your issue though is with Boots requesting the repeat prescription on your behalf? If you ask your Doctor to send the prescription to Boots and they then issue the drugs then they are meeting their obligations as a pharmacist. But any extra services such as requesting it for you at regular intervals is a commercial service they offer on top of their NHS services.

What seems to go wrong is that Boots have to send the repeats to the surgery for them to authorize -  they have not been doing that. I am not alone - my surgery told me of several people having to chase.

Can you clarify what you mean by "commercial service" please ?  That implies payment  - by the surgery ?

No there is no payment for Boots to request the prescription for you, but its not part of the standard NHS prescription service.
As others have said in this thread, many people ask their doctor for the prescription then the surgery sends it to the pharmacy.

What Boots (and many other pharmacys) are doing is requesting it for you, so they get the repeat business and get the money from the NHS for fulfilling your prescription. The service of requesting it for you is over and above just fulfilling it and has nothing to do with the standard NHS service.

Robin9

Just had a reply from jon81uk said:

........

What Boots (and many other pharmacys) are doing is requesting it for you, so they get the repeat business and get the money from the NHS for fulfilling your prescription. The service of requesting it for you is over and above just fulfilling it and has nothing to do with the standard NHS service.

Just had a response from Boots Customer Complaints -  they are investigating.

Still waiting on texts telling me prescriptions are ready from Boots following the prescriptions authorised by my surgery on Monday

Jaybee_16

I use my local Boots for repeat prescriptions and have done since moving here just over a year ago. I receive a text message on the due date and never had a problem.
Boots works for me.

Andy_L

"How do I complain about the Boots online pharmacy?
 

Our aim is to provide excellent service at all times. If we fail to reach these standards and youre [sic] unhappy with our prescription service in any way, please contact us via one of the following methods:

Call Boots Customer Care on 0345 070 8090

Email Boots Customer Care at boots.customercare@boots.co.uk

Write with your complaint to:

Boots Customer Care
PO Box 5300
Nottingham
NG90 1AA"

https://www.boots.com/health-pharmacy#!/synthetix/knowledge/article/qed00947/how-do-i-make-a-complaint-about-boots-prescription-service

Robin9

Thanks Andy -  Customer Care has already responded and is chasing the branch.

KxMx

Boots did better when I took the ordering away from them and did it myself, but other issues persisted and I ended up going online with Lloyds Direct for a few years, then a local physical pharmacy once they changed management and improved massively.

I did email a complaint to Boots who merely passed it to the pharmacy involved, went nowhere and the problem didn't go away. Waste of time. 

Murphybear

Olinda99 said:

change to lloyds pharmacy or by post download the app pharmacy2u they are excellent

Not always.  When we lived in rural Devon we used them.  My meds went halfway round Devon then Cornwall then back to Devon again.  By the time I got them I had run out of a few items.

My husband had a worse experience.  He got someone else’s meds . That person got his.  It took ages to sort out and when we asked if we could return the meds to the pharmacy we were told that they had to be destroyed.  

Murphybear

Jaybee_16 said:

I use my local Boots for repeat prescriptions and have done since moving here just over a year ago. I receive a text message on the due date and never had a problem.
Boots works for me.

Me too.  I’ve used Boots for ages and never had a problem.  I order on the website and the pharmacist in our GP deals with it quickly and it is ready to collect from Boots 2 or 3 days later.  If it not quite ready we go into Waitrose which is practically next door 

We used to get them delivered from an independent pharmacy but they changed their rule for free delivery.  You can only get them delivered if you are disabled and cannot get to the pharmacy easily.  

I actually had problems getting them delivered because I gave a controlled drug and they won’t leave them with anyone else.

Like so many issues we read about on MSE there’s a lot of local variation.