#6

I work in a pharmacy.. let me tell you exactly why it takes a while to get your prescription ready even though we “don’t make the tablets from scratch” (that’s right, someone said that to me at work yesterday).

1. You walk in with your prescription. It’s only one item so it should be really quick to prepare. In the pharmacy there is a small child and his mother and an old man, but they are sitting down so you walk straight up to the counter and give your prescription to the health care assistant. She asks you if you pay or not – this is not a choice! You only don’t pay if you fit into a few specific groups. Also, this price is set by the NHS.. It will not be any cheaper if you go to another pharmacy.

2. The Health Care Assistant puts the prescription in a basket and puts it by the dispensing computer, but it doesn’t get started! How could this be? You walked straight up to the counter with out having to wait and it’s only ONE item! Well, do you remember the child and the old man sitting in the waiting area? The dispenser and the pharmacist are busy putting together the old man’s 14 item prescription and making up the child’s liquid antibiotics. And that lazy health care assistant? She’s just standing around.. why can’t she do your prescription? Legally she doesn’t have the training to do it so if she did she would be breaking the law.

3. Finally the dispenser is free to do your prescription. She logs onto the system and types your name into the search bar.. Your not on our system! Not a problem, she’ll just add you but it means that it will take a little while longer. After your all added and the prescription has been processed the dispenser goes to print the labels and the label roll has run out! She rushes around to find and new roll then finds one, puts in in the label printer and we’re away!

4. Now the prescription has been processed on the computer and the labels are printed, we are just missing the drugs. The dispenser walks over to where your item is kept and we don’t have it on the shelf! Luckily our order has just come in and the dispenser knows for a fact that your item is in it.. the only problem is all the drugs are all mixed up in 6 big tote boxes so to find your item she has to open them up one by one and rummage through all the other drugs to find yours. It just so happens that your item is the the forth tote box so it didn’t take too long to find. The dispenser takes out your item, checks it against the prescription, sticks the label on it and signs to say she has dispensed it.

5. The dispenser then has to get it double checked by the pharmacist, but while you were waiting someone came in the ask advice from the pharmacist so your prescription it just going to have to wait a moment. The pharmacist finished talking to the other customer and starts to check your prescription. He notices that the Dr has written that your item should be taken three times daily when it is usually taken four times daily. The pharmacist then has to call up the Dr to check if he meant to prescribe it like that. The Dr had made a mistake but is happy for the pharmacist to amend the label and give out the item now then send the prescription back to the surgery for amending later.

6. The pharmacist finishes their checks, bags up the item and gives it to the health care assistant to give out. You finally have your drugs and are free to go.

And that’s why it doesn’t just take a minute to get your prescription medications. Don’t take it out on the pharmacy staff, we have processes we have to follow and no amount of shouting is going to change that.

Lillian Catherine x.