OT:prescriptions

[Peter Morris]

The point is that it's easily fixed. At the moment I am dealing with two separate entities, the surgery and the pharmacy with myself as the intermediary. So that if the surgery falls down on the job, then I will know straightaway. On the other hand if the surgery do their job and produce the prescription slip, once I've handed this in at the pharmacy, I know that if anything goes wrong from that point on. its the fault of the pharmacy.

If the two parties are dealing direct, then in the event of a breakdown I have no way of knowing where the fault lies. And as I said before, quite possibly they will blame one another.

Without wishing to sound ungrateful I wasn't actually asking for help.

I asked two simple questions about these new, to me, totally pointless forms, which had been provided on a table outside of my doctors surgery.

I'm still no wiser as to who they're provided for. Obviously not for people whose prescriptions are handled online, and not for people using the traditional two part forms. So for who ?

As to advice, as I described earlier, there was a large notice outside the surgery explaining that the surgery was closed except to patients for who an appointment had been made with doctor.

While on the website of the surgery it states

How to Register for Online Services If you are registered with the practice, simply pop along to the practice with your ID and current proof of address, and we will issue you with login details.

Which is clearly impossible under present conditions, in any case,

PM

[tim...]

The electronic process is far less likely to go wrong

the paper process can easily get lost in the wrong in tray as it passes its way through the surgery, to the doctor who has to sign it and back to the receptionists who have to make it available to you

the electronic process has no such "back of the sofa" holes to fall down

if it has been in-completed for any reason, it will be obvious to the staff as soon as they find your details in their system when you query it

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Is this post many years old? Having to visit a surgery for a repeat prescription is so 20th century.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Obviously?

If it is a regular medication simply ask your surgery for as long as they are allowed to give for that particular medicine.

There is a pharmacist preference you can set yourself.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd say the old fashioned way of a hand written repeat prescription was far more likely to cause errors than a repeat one sent by email etc to the pharmacy?

[Ophelia]

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.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Under exactly the same present circumstances, with the surgery saying they were closed to visitors, someone here did manage to go in and register - they say closed, but they still do allow patients in, if it is essential that they go in. All you need do is ring and ask to be allowed to use online access.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

It happens that tim... formulated :

Exactly!

[Robin]

I had thought that several people had answered at least a large part of your second question.

But for what it's worth my surgery similarly asks people who won't/can't use their online system or a pharmacy to manage their prescriptions to fill in a paper slip. They do so as in their experience in dealing with the 11,000 on their list that leads to a quicker, more accurate outcome than asking people to submit the slip from their previous prescriptions. (Failure modes with that include losing the form, taking a family member's, ticking the wrong items.) But it's never the only method. People can and do attach their slip, write a letter, demand to talk to someone, submit their council tax bill...

Against that background I would offer on your first specific question that I see nothing to suggest the use of the slip is /necessary/.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Dave Plowman (News) used his keyboard to write :

I would suggest email might be a little more reliable, but still a manual involvement and can go wrong.

I think the online system is entirely automatic[1], with no involvement of the surgery for the repeats. The pharmacy get their list and make them up, which is the only manual involvement.

[1] I have ticked the online box on a Friday evening, when the surgery is closed and been able to collect on Saturday afternoon.

[nightjar]

I do it that way as well, but last week it was also delivered to my door, which they are doing to keep the number of people visiting the shop to a minimum.

[Robin]

Not /necessarily/ automatic. For most things the prescribing doctor can set whether (and if so for how long) repeats can issue without review but doesn't have to do so.

[alan_m]

So nothing different if an electronic prescription goes wrong. Turn up in person or phone up and speak to exactly the same people who can sort out the problem.

[alan_m]

You don't have to designate your local pharmacy. You could even use one of the on-line pharmacies that deliver by post.

[alan_m]

In general surgeries are not closed - it's just that you can no longer walk in without first arranging to be there. In this case phoning the surgery would probably produce via the mail system the correct forms authorising electronic prescriptions.

In my surgery an appointment with a doctor first requires an on-phone consultation with the doctor who then decides if you needs to be physically in the surgery.

[tim...]

It' what I used to do until the electronic system was fully installed a couple of years ago

I didn't trust the pharmacy to manually process my repeats for me

tim

[tim...]

I don't think it's even an email

it's some kind of cloud storage that doctor and pharmacy can access, with the pharmacy being pinged when there are new scripts for them

tim

[tim...]

I got asked to take my neighbours meds to him

I suspect that was a breach of data protection

tim

[charles]

If it was in a plain wrapper it was probably no problem. Even if it was, various things are having to be bypassed in order for the country to keep functioning.

[Graham Harrison]

Same here.