OT:prescriptions

[Peter Morris]

I've been on 3 monthly prescription for years now.

I still do this the old fashioned way rather through the pharmacy as the practice managers at my surgery are incompetents and if anything went wrong they would blame each other

Normally I pick up a two part slip from the surgery, hand the top half to the pharmacist and keep the bottom half and hand this into the surgery in three months time. In exchange for a new two part slip.

Turning up at the surgery today there was big sign explaining it was closed except for those with appointments. Fair enough. There was also a sign along with a table saying "for repeat prescriptions fill out a slip* and post it in the box". Nothing about normal prescription slips. Also there was no information about how the patient would pick up the prescription slip.

Printed on the slip was the following

Repeat Prescription Request Date of request Your Name DOB drug name Dose Quantity Required

I phoned up the surgery. After a few minutes of pre-recorded waffle I got through to the receptionists. Me Hello. How am I supposed to collect the completed prescription form please ? Rec Do you have a registered pharmacy ? Me No. (although I didn't explain why - their incompetence) Rec Could you name one for now? Me I gave the name of my normal pharmacist. Rec (And I quote) That's it then. Me Sorry what do you mean ? Basically I had to drag it out of her that somehow they would send the form direct to the pharmacist and I could pick it up there. When I explained that none of this was explained either on the form - which didn't have an entry for a pharmacist, for patients who didn't have a registered pharmacist and they could pick the new prescription up there, or on any of the notices outside she said "Oh most people already know that". Well I certainly didn't Similarly when I said I normally hand in the bottom half of the two part form she said "Oh yes you use that instead then". But there was no mention of any of this on the notices.

So I have two questions. Under present circumstances is it necessary for any patient to fill in a white form as above in order to get a repeat prescription ? i.e Is there a way of ordering repeat prescriptions which isn't possible under present circs which would make this necessary ? ( As the receptionist implies nowadays do only dinosaurs(and people who don't trust the competence of the practice staff) still use the two part prescription slips ?

Thank you

PM

[John Rumm]

They would probably take your normal counterfoil by the sounds of it.

I think many people now leave it to the pharmacies to deal with. Its probably more efficient all round since the surgery can process a whole bunch in one transaction with the pharmacy, rather than lots of individuals. It saves multiple trips for the patient as well.

(I normally order a repeat for someone, so I just phone the pharmacy, they sort out all the paperwork etc, and deliver the stuff a few days later. (and these days, if I forget to order, then they normally do it anyway!).

[Chris Hogg]

Does your surgery not do on-line requests for repeat prescriptions? Not by the sound of it. It's fairly common AIUI, and my surgery certainly does, via an intermediary called 'The Waiting Room', but your surgery has to be registered with them for it to work. I just go on-line, order the repeat, and collect it from my nominated pharmacy a few days later.

[Tim Streater]

I'm using Patient Access to deal with repeat prescriptions, so I order online, but:

1) PA for you needs to be set up by your GP Surgery. 2) My repeat is monthly rather than 3-monthly (but I wouldn't have thought that mattered). 3) My surgery dispenses so I pick up there but again, I would not have thought that mattered.

I'm still doing this under covid, the only difference is that I have to pick up through a window in the dispensing area (i.e., I'm not entering the Surgery at all).

Would you not trust them to set up a working PA account for you?

[Tricky Dicky]

We do ours electronically, log on to the practice website, get up our repeat prescriptions, tick off what we require, they electronically send it to the pharmacy and two days later they are ready to be picked up. Simples!

Richard

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Why?

Does your surgery not have some form of online direct access for patients? Have you asked about this?

Long ago, I enquired, filled a form in requesting online access. That gave me full access to my online patient record, online appointments and online prescription requests, plus repeats.

All I do is log in to the site, it lists my prescriptions and there is a box to tick alongside any which might be due to be repeated. Tick the box, then collect (usually next day) from my nominated pharmacy.

I can look at a list of appointments and select one, but not that I could tell - select a phone appointment, so I ring to request those.

I can go all the way back through my record, which lists everything including the outcome of appointments and even enquiries I have made about appointments.

All very slick..

[newshound]

All down to local practice. For ours, the original implementation of online access was a bit flakey but now it is spot on. Also relatively easy to book appointments on-line (at least it was before shut-down).

I reckon on-line prescriptions are less likely to generate errors than old manual systems.

[alan_m]

So presumably these incompetent managers are always getting your "traditional way of getting a repeat prescription" wrong and the electronic method is not working for everyone else.

So what is the problem - you say that you already have the form (slip) that requests the repeat prescription - the second half of your previous prescription.

Why not fill in the white form to nominate a pharmaist and, if supported, the form requesting on-line access for repeat prescriptions (and maybe access to surgery requested test results and your medical records and ). The latter is at the discretion of the practice doctors and may be limited, and maybe based on their take-up of fully electronic record keeping. Hospital records and testing from other third party sources (bowel cancer testing etc.) may/will not be included.

I do mine on-line and the prescription is transferred electronically to my nominated pharmacy. When I pick up my drugs I also get a repeat prescription form presumably printed out by the pharmacy (I don't need this form as my repeat prescription details are set-up on-line). I had the option of nominating a pharmacy where additionally they would order the repeat prescription for me based on their records. Around my way nominated pharmacies will also pick up completed paper prescriptions forms from a surgery _IF_ they have been informed that one is waiting to be picked up.

Obviously one off prescriptions would require a doctor appointment.

Why do you trust a the practice managers to implement a paper trail rather than an electronic trail? If most people now have a nominated pharmacy and the drug request for repeat prescriptions are transferred electronically then your method, being the small minority of requests, is more likely to go wrong.

[Robin]

On 12/05/2020 12:32, Peter Morris wrote: <snip>

I agree with others that the norm in England for people with continuing medication seems to be is prescriptions sent electronically to your nominated pharmacy. Was pushed by the NHS some years ago to save doctor's time. But I have no idea if species comes into it :)

Depending on the medication and the doctor, there's no need even to request the repeat every 2 to 3 months. You just turn up and collect. And if you away from home you can collect the medication from any pharmacy that does electronic 'scripts.

[Peter Morris]

Not always, no. They have however mislaid two prescriptions in the past between my handing in the bottom slip and their not having processed its successor. On both occasions this was put down to "changes in the prescribing team".

However, and this is the point , I was able to chase up these mistakes in person at the reception desk and both were sorted out without further problems. Aside from my having to return later to pick up a new slip

I don't really know whether the electronic method is working for everyone else or not. Not having asked them. But if something did go wrong I wouldn't like to find myself in the position of trying to explain all this, to the receptionists at my surgery.

It really is as simple as that. The paper system works for me and if it goes wrong I can sort it out easily. Basically if it ain't broke then I don't see any need to fix it.

From the tone of your answer it would appear that just like the practice managers at my local surgery, which I persist with for clinical reasons, you automatically assume everyone you deal with is stupid or something. So be it.

Unfortunately it appears that nobody is in a position to actually answer my two questions. But thank you all, nevertheless.

PM

[Ophelia]

I've been on 3 monthly prescription for years now.

I still do this the old fashioned way rather through the pharmacy as the practice managers at my surgery are incompetents and if anything went wrong they would blame each other

Normally I pick up a two part slip from the surgery, hand the top half to the pharmacist and keep the bottom half and hand this into the surgery in three months time. In exchange for a new two part slip.

Turning up at the surgery today there was big sign explaining it was closed except for those with appointments. Fair enough. There was also a sign along with a table saying "for repeat prescriptions fill out a slip* and post it in the box". Nothing about normal prescription slips. Also there was no information about how the patient would pick up the prescription slip.

Printed on the slip was the following

Repeat Prescription Request Date of request Your Name DOB drug name Dose Quantity Required

I phoned up the surgery. After a few minutes of pre-recorded waffle I got through to the receptionists. Me Hello. How am I supposed to collect the completed prescription form please ? Rec Do you have a registered pharmacy ? Me No. (although I didn't explain why - their incompetence) Rec Could you name one for now? Me I gave the name of my normal pharmacist. Rec (And I quote) That's it then. Me Sorry what do you mean ? Basically I had to drag it out of her that somehow they would send the form direct to the pharmacist and I could pick it up there. When I explained that none of this was explained either on the form - which didn't have an entry for a pharmacist, for patients who didn't have a registered pharmacist and they could pick the new prescription up there, or on any of the notices outside she said "Oh most people already know that". Well I certainly didn't Similarly when I said I normally hand in the bottom half of the two part form she said "Oh yes you use that instead then". But there was no mention of any of this on the notices.

So I have two questions. Under present circumstances is it necessary for any patient to fill in a white form as above in order to get a repeat prescription ? i.e Is there a way of ordering repeat prescriptions which isn't possible under present circs which would make this necessary ? ( As the receptionist implies nowadays do only dinosaurs(and people who don't trust the competence of the practice staff) still use the two part prescription slips ?

Thank you

PM

====

You are very unlucky:((( Our docs are great. Phone the docs, tell them what you want and it goes directly to the pharmacy for collection!! Time you changed your docs?

O

[Martin Brown]

Even if they don't do online (and most have done for some time). They generally accept phone calls for renewing repeat prescriptions between certain times of day for those elderly that don't do internet stuff.

The ones I have had to deal with all support online or phone renewal of prescriptions and send it electronically as a batch to the pharmacy. Some pharmacies will do automatic txting when the prescription is ready to collect from the nominated pharmacy (since before Covid-19).

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Peter Morris expressed precisely :

I don't know of anyone who has ever had a problem with the computerised online system - it just works.

Obviously things are constantly going wrong with your manual scheme.

I repeat! It is obviously not working for you, or you would not be here complaining about the manual system.

It is broke, your surgery is probably having to tolerate an odd few of their patients, who refuse to use a well designed online system that works faultlessly. Some of the older patients will have the excuse that they are not computer literate, but probably not you as you manage to post here.

You asked for help, you were given help and very sensible advice.

You are welcome.

[NY]

My previous two doctors surgeries had their own web site which (amongst a lot of other things) allowed you to request each month's tablets a few days before.

The present surgery also allows this, though the ordering of tablets seems to redirect to an external site. However the surgery also offer to renew the tablets over the counter: when I collect one set of tablets, I am given a pre-printed form for my repeat drugs and I just have to tick all the boxes. That system worked perfectly until the Covid restrictions. Since then, they've not supplied the pre-printed tick-box form, so I have to go online, send an email or phone the surgery (orders by phone were stopped a few months ago because of the risk of mis-hearing, but have been reinstated during the Covid restrictions). The whole process has become a lot more liable to fail: I've had emails ignored or online orders marked "refused" without any reason being given, so I now phone up a few days before I'm due to collect the tablets to check that they really *are* waiting for me to collect.

The surgery has a "tablet cashpoint" device on the outside wall of the building: you enter a PIN that they text you and the tablets are dispensed through a hole in the wall. You have to request in advance that the tablets are to be dispensed this way rather than over the counter. Unfortunately when I tried to use it, I fell foul of a complete lack of instructions: I was faced with an apparently blank dark glass plate (which was actually a touch-sensitive display) and a keypad with physical keys. I tried entering my PIN at the keypad, but nothing happened. I should instead have read the (invisible) instructions on the glass panel and pressed touch-sensitive keys somewhere on that panel - but there was no instruction to do this, and even after I knew what to do, I went back and looked carefully the panel and could not see anything on it - and that was on an overcast day, so it wasn't low-angle sun shining directly on the screen. "We need to get a sun shade for the display" the nurse commented as she handed over the tablets, hiving retrieved them from the "cashpoint" device when I couldn't make it work.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Ophelia submitted this idea :

The 'old fashioned' manual way was always subject to human error - it is part of being human, to make mistakes. It doesn't make them incompetent, just human - they are very busy, so these things are best dealt with automatically.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

I've not had one for almost five years We were all told how to do it some time ago, it mysteriously arrives at our chosen pharmacy and I myself normally get a call, and we check its been done right on the phone as you say, practices are known to make errors of omission. never surely. grin. It sometimes hiccups, but generally works you can also use the NHS app which you can use to access the system at most practices, but no all, I'm told to see what is going on. I don't do this since the web interface to my doctors system is about as accessible to the blind as a Scotsman's wallet. that is a joke by the way. Brian

[charles]

But, it might be like our village, they have a useless pharmacy.

[Peter Johnson]

That's how it was with my surgery/repeat presecription/pharmacy. Then the parmacist changed and they went back to the old way without telling the patients. (The surgery is connected to an app called Docly which attempts to do online consultations and which includes a repeat prescription facility, neither of which I have used. There also seems to be a tendancy among some surgery receptionists to assume that because tthey know what they know and some patients know what they know, then all patients know what they know. A few years ago I rang to request an appointment with Dr Archer. We were several minutes into the conversation before it occurred to the receptionist to tell me that Dr Archer had retired the year before. Some of this is down to training, or the lack of it, of course. )

[tim...]

with electronic script there is no "form" sent to the pharmacy

just an electronic request

not if you can access "repeat prescriptions" via an online access to your doctor

tim

[tim...]

yes, as from the start of the year they have all signed up to this

it is the patients online access that's lacking here

tim