THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

tori.k · 14 February 2018 at 9:19AM

Ours work the same mardatha, but it's still a pain, repeats you can do online a pick up, but with DH he ends up with a lot of surplus pills due to the fact that some of his are boxed monthly and some 28 days, but we ended up with trouble when he tried to temporarily cancel due to the surplus it's creates, it's such a waste within the NHS.
In our old town the pharmacy used to regularly run out of insulin and heavily rely on the local hospital supply, on most things you usually end up with an IOU note with your meds and have to go back a few days later.

[Deleted User] · 14 February 2018 at 9:37AM

I've worked in a Pharmacy and I do understand why 'owing' slips are handed out. To hold stock enough for all needs is virtually impossible as most pharmacies (certainly the tiny building ours was located in) have limited storage space for storage and the prescriptions that come in are unpredictable in what is prescribed and it's easy to deplete your entire stock of a particular drug in a morning. Having said this there are pharmaceutical retailers with huge warehouses who deliver right through the day but sometimes a particular drug is in short supply to them and that's when the problems begin as everyone is then on 'catch up'. If you have 500 of a certain drug and get 5 x prescriptions for 100 early in the day you have a choice in do you hand out 100 five times or do you hand out 50 x 10 times and give out 10 owing slips until the next delivery arrives. People get very angry over it but really it's not the Pharmacys fault, it's the system of supply and demand.

moneyistooshorttomention · 14 February 2018 at 9:53AM

Not a life-threatening - but could have been a life-ruining - prescription thing one time was that many years back I was on the Pill for a few years (prior to getting sterilised to be able to forget the whole issue).

I duly handed over my prescription to the chemist and took the sealed packet they gave me and put it in the drawer ready for when I was about to start taking the next lot. Opened the packet all ready to take the first pill in next course that second - and it was the wrong type:eek:

Obviously, I must have gone back and swopped it the next day - but that was a whole month of telling the "boyfriend of the time" to "Forget about it Buster - ain't nowt happening until next month - as I'm not taking any risk whatsoever" (even though I'd have had an abortion within weeks and doctor would have been on receiving end of an earfull at me having to have an operation I shouldnt have needed - ie think it was courtesy of their bad writing).

Moral of the tale - check the drugs you've just been given literally before you even walk out of the pharmacy - in case they've made a mistake.

It could have been worse - the very very slight indeed chance could have come up despite a month's abstinence - and I might have been someone that would have had upset feelings about an abortion. I wouldnt have had a scrap of feelings about it being an abortion per se personally - mine would have all been just sheer anger at having to have an operation of any description.

[Deleted User] · 14 February 2018 at 9:58AM

That is the most sensible advice and we undo the sealed bag in the shop to make sure the right drugs are in there. It's so much easier to do this which takes seconds rather than have the trip back from home when you DO realise it's the wrong thing!

mardatha · 14 February 2018 at 2:16PM

When we phone for repeats we are asked what do we need? And the rest is ignored. We don't get anything online, easier just talking to reception.

fuddle · 14 February 2018 at 2:58PM

I had an experience where the pharmacy only had a handful of antibiotics available. They gave me them to start and ordered new there and then. I picked them up the day after so all was ok but without those antibiotics I most certainly would have been admitted to hospital again. I have 3 pharmacies here so I probably could have got them if I wandered around but the word is probably. I understand why it happened but it made me realise that medications aren't always a given.

On the flip side I have been stashing my asthma inhalers. This morning the consultant is doubting the asthma diagnosis in favour of a heart issue that is causing breathlessness. If that is the case I won't need my stash. The same happened with my stashed food. Sometimes the prepping mindset can be wasteful one because things change but that's life and as long as we realise we can't prep and control everything we'll be ok. A prepper, afterall, knows how to adapt and deal with curve balls.

Karmacat · 14 February 2018 at 3:01PM

Wow .... quite a bit of food for thought in this discussion. I don't have any regular prescription right now, but nor do I have a hospital bag. I have a go-bag to get me to the nearest hotel in case of a house fire, but a hospital bag is quite different. I've discovered a little bag that would be ideal for that, too.

Thanks folks.

Karmacat · 14 February 2018 at 3:04PM

Mar, and GQ too - glad you're both all right.

Witless · 14 February 2018 at 4:08PM

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

To hold stock enough for all needs is virtually impossible as most pharmacies (certainly the tiny building ours was located in) have limited storage space for storage and the prescriptions that come in are unpredictable in what is prescribed and it's easy to deplete your entire stock of a particular drug in a morning. ....... If you have 500 of a certain drug and get 5 x prescriptions for 100 early in the day you have a choice in do you hand out 100 five times or do you hand out 50 x 10 times and give out 10 owing slips until the next delivery arrives...

I agree with the whole post, but if you consider the words I've emboldened ... by virtue of their nature repeat prescriptions aren't unpredictable: exactly the opposite in fact.

It's basic rolling stock control IMHO: Patient X requires a 2 month supply of drug Y therefore we need to order a stock 6 - 7 weeks after dispensing them.

Yes, first time prescriptions can skew figures - but what are the chances of someone else having exactly the same medication for the first time every time my prescription is due?

From Nov 2016 to Dec 2017 the pharmacy got at least one item on every prescription wrong: following surgery I was having visits by the District Nurse - a total of 3 dressings per day. Rather than risk complications I got the DN to ring the repeat prescription in: they issued 5 dressings (ie - not even enough for 2 days - on a Friday! Fortunately the DN was able to rob hospital stocks.)

For the following prescription her supervisor wrote it herself: they didn't see the BOXES on the script, they issued individual items!

I was swayed by neighbourliness and stayed with them as the pharmacist lived 2 doors away until her marriage but enough was enough and I've 'transferred' to the one I mentioned above (smaller, less staff, closer to both my home & the surgery).

4 scripts later (2 x one offs and 2 x repeats) they've yet to get any item wrong - on leaving in the first repeat (IYSWIM) and arranging for them to collect the scripts they added my requirements to their scheduled order.

Not rocket science.

Part of my role includes resource management: if I mismanaged the way the 'big' pharmacy did I wouldn't be working overtime hours - I wouldn't be working any hours!

(Sorry - rant over)

[Deleted User] · 14 February 2018 at 4:40PM

Repeat prescriptions are predictable but not all prescriptions are repeats and many are just a one off from a visit on the day to the GP and those are the ones that hit stock levels, that's the unpredictable element in what would otherwise be a rolling re-stock.

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THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

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