Repeat Prescription

Forgot to add that if I wanted to collect the prescription tomorrow I would have to call into the practice today to order it - can't be done over the phone!

Sorry, Oldwoman but they are rushed off their feet with 'flu, Norovirus, etc and what seems like a quick problem to help you out regarding an oversight which you admit is your own fault, might be the last straw in a hectic day.

If 50% of patients had also forgotten, just like you, the surgery would explode

Sorry, but I don't have much sympathy for you. My surgery was asking for repeat prescriptions to be submitted by 16th Dec because of the last-minute rush, and there have been queues out of the pharmacy's door with people collecting them.

You have to abide by the rules especially for something that is your own fault.Our surgery is so busy that we have to put in a repeat prescription a week in advance to make sure it is there. They would not tolerate being asked at the last minute.

I'm lucky that my surgery are very quick at doing repeat prescriptions if they go direct to a local chemist electronically, often my items are ready to collect the following day after my online order.

But recently the pharmacist told me not to worry if I was late ordering as she could give me three days supply without the prescription as she knows when i last had my prescription made up. This gives me some peace of mind incase i forget to order my prescription as I would struggle to manage without my strong painkillers.

If a lot of people forgot their repeat Rs the surgery could not cope, true.

However, cannot a extra and low level member of staff be employed to deal with this rather simple task?

Doctors's surgeries are all run as businesses now, I think. So many simple routine tasks can be delegated to comparatively low paid personnel, perhaps by engaging office staff from agencies at peak times.

If you always use the same pharmacy,so long as the prescription is not for a controlled drug,they may be able to give you an emergency supply to tide you over until your prescription is ready.

At my practice, the receptionists authorise the repeat prescriptions. They don't even have to be signed off by a doctor. What slows the process down is that the pharmacist collects the prescriptions physically from another part of town. If I lived further away, the GP practice could dispense the medication and the whole process could take no more than a few minutes, as has happened in the past. Alexa is right - a low level member of staff could deal with it. It's this kind of inefficiency which annoys me about the NHS. I hope those who are being judgmental remember to polish their haloes this Christmas.

It used to be 48 hours for a repeat prescription at our practice but sometimes it is much longer.
DH went to collect an injection, which he needs to help prolong his life, and it wasn't ready after ten days.
I had the same problem when I was on anticoagulants after a pulmonary embolism.
I don' t see why the surgery should be any busier as they still allow the same number of appointments as any other day.

The system used by my surgery is that the dispensing chemist holds the script, I telephone them when I'm running low on something, and within a couple of days they deliver to my home.As simple,uncomplicated and stress free as that

I forgot to order my repeat Rs via the central telephone ordering service. The chemist had given me enough for five days that is insufficient to last until my next meds delivery from the chemist. I rang the rather efficient ordering service this morning and they will forward my request to the chemist this morning, and ask the chemist to let me have more emergency tabs to last until the regular delivery.

Our rural surgery has a pharmacy attached to it . They keep my repeat prescription paperwork and give me the next collection date a month ahead to suit my working pattern ?. It never fails .

I am in no way blaming the staff, however, it just seems like an unnecessarily complicated way of dealing with the problem. I always collect the medication from the same chemist but they don't do automatic refills so I have to order every time.

I think ordering repeat prescriptions have got extremely complictated and I sympathise. My chemist is very understanding and will do them at short notice. I hope you can get it all sorted out soon.

My prescription is for six months sent to the pharmacist. I collect a months worth at a time.

I think my pharmacy must hold the record! They have an app so I ordered one of my meds at 5am this morning and I've had an e-mail 6 hours later to say it's ready to collect!! I used to ring in the request which took a few days but since they launched the app it's amazingly fast.

I don't understand why the system seems to vary so much.

My GP dispenses to anyone who lives more than a mile from a pharmacy. When I lived more than a mile away, the system was quick and efficient. I could order online and the meds were ready for collection the same day, apart from one which needed to be ordered. If I'd had a GP appointment, the GP would write out the prescription and I could collect it on the way out of the building.

Now I live within a mile of a pharmacy, the whole system is ridiculously long-winded and takes ten days for meds to be ready.

Prescriptions have sometimes been lost and nobody will take responsibility for the loss.

I've done the same oldwomen.I put mine in yesterday in the surgery, there was no one there to ask when it would be ready, so just hoping for Friday, it's bp medication, so thing I might break the last two tablets I have in half, and hope for the best.

I live in Wales and every 4 weeks we have to ring the chemist up and order a repeat.
In London, prescriptions could be issued every 8 weeks, no need to ring anyone, I just picked up every 8 weeks from the chemists.

With having to physically remember every 4 weeks, weekends get in way more often, holidays too.

I request repeats for us both on line. When our surgery operated independently 48 hours later we could pick up the items at our local pharmacist after an electronic transfer. Now absorbed by an ever growing group, same system but a minimum of 7 working days, often 10. Progress?

Every prescription form has a re-order form attached to it. I send this by post to the surgery when I have only two weeks left of the last batch, enclosing a stamped self-addressed envelope. Within a week the repeat prescription arrives by post through my letterbox. I don't have to go to the surgery, only to the postbox at the end of the road.

With all the Brexit uncertainty about supplies, I have been gradually getting ahead with prescriptions, so that now I am stocked up for at least two months. I don't regard this as "hoarding" but as responsibly making sure I will not be part of any panicked pressure in the near future - and now that I am ahead I shall stay ahead.

My pharmacy organises the repeat prescription. They send an email when it's ready to collect. I don't have to do anything except collect the meds. Isn't this a national service provided by pharmacies?

SparklyGrandma I think 4 week prescriptions are the norm now in England. They certainly are in my area.

Not here it isn't SpringyChicken.

springychicken

Same here, collected one yesterday, simple.
She said the next one will be ready by Feb 17th