Couriers a warning

Single incident probably about to be resolved.

There is no 'brand quality' any more. It depends entirely on the person doing the delivery.

Mine was Pharmacy2U, they always dispatched at consistent time of evening, it always got to Northampton, then Leicester at same times, and gave a delivery window that was usually optimistic.

I would not trust Royal Mail with my prescriptions. We use a local pharmacy who deliver via van. Most places have one.

Dave

Once they have honest knowledgeable couriers they are all good.

I had to complain against Evri. They sacked the driver and I got my old reliable MAW (midl;e aged woman) back.

I use Pharmacy2U. I order my renewal on the surgery or NHS web sites and about a week later it arrives by Royal Mail. In the past couple of years they have always delivered exactly what I ordered.

If they had run out of anything I could wander down to Tesco and phone my GP to get an emergency prescription in a few minutes.

I thought about this, but you have to be home, and available, whenever they try to deliver and sod's law says they will call at a moment of maximum inconvenience. On balance, the walk down (and I do mean _down_) into the village to collect from the pharmacy, and back up (ditto _up_) again gives me some needed exercise and avoids that problem.

Pharmacy2U no longer require a signature on delivery, so you can name a safe place/neighbour

Are you sure that's true for controlled medicines (such as morphine and similar narcotic analgesics)?

I wouldn't know about "controlled medicines" but certainly for "prescription only medication", the email notifying of the changes didn't say any more than it was now possible ...

Royal Mail are definitely not reliable. My ongoing problem is that I get an (automated) email saying something will be delivered today but often turns up 1 or two days later. I've had "tracked 24" packages being stuck in their sorting hubs for 10 days. My post turns up in batches. I'm aware that my local RM distribution centre has serious staff shortages and a high turnover of new starters. Where friends of mine live in a different part of the country they socialise with the local postman and have found situation is much the same. The local centre has a ongoing problem trying to fill the 30% shortfall in staff. Most of the existing postmen are close to retirement age. It is a rural area and involve possibly a 50 mile delivery round, not easy to learn.

I had a look on their website, and at

"Controlled drugs - These must be sent using a tracked service and will require a signature. If you’re not home, Royal Mail will leave a card so you can rearrange delivery or collect from the depot."

My local courier for Evri strikes again (if it's the same one as I noted here just over a month ago in the "OT: More Courier Hell" thread). I got an email this afternoon stating delivery would be between 1900 and 2100. At 2115 I went outside (in the rain) to see if it had been left on the drive as before, but it hadn't. Just after 2130 I got an email stating it had been delivered. It wasn't at the front door, but on the drive again. The cardboard box was wet, and the rain had got inside, but fortunately there were polythene packs inside and it didn't matter if they got wet.

As before, the photo of the delivered package was not of my box, and it was not my front door.

Probably not applicable to you but our doctor's surgery has it's own pharmacy. It offered a free, repeat prescription delivery service for those who were eligible (can't remember the eligibility rules but maybe because the surgery covers a large rural area) but has now added a fee of £35 a year.

Frustration ensues if they don't have what you need when you get there? Now that phone calls are (relatively) free we can contact the dispensary to find out if our prescription is ready before making the 5 mile journey.

Mine does too, but I can't use it (I think it's for the surgery's more distant patients) but there is a private pharmacy literally 20 yards across the road from the surgery.

I use the pharmacy in Morrisons and they send me an email when mine is ready for collection.

OP of this thread. I, too, use Morrison's and have never thought of asking for the email. Q1 Do they automatically order for you, or do you have to order via your surgery? (Patient Access/NHS App in my case). Q2 Have you (or anyone else here) tried the delivery service for medications? You may have guessed by now, that I can currently stagger round, but am looking forward.