We don't ask for much Mr M and I. We have a roof over our heads we have food to eat and we have family and friends that love us and we love very much. This is why when things go awry we feel hurt and sometimes we feel that people just don't give a sh*t.
We have to take drugs to prolong our lives, most people when they get to our age are taking something and as a result we have to put in a request for a repeat prescription for said drugs. This is made simpler for us by a neat little scheme whereby the pharmacy of our choice can send our request direct to the surgery and the prescription can be generated and returned to the pharmacy where it will be filled and then delivered to our door.
Because I am a bit obsessive about this I like to do the call to the pharmacy on a Monday morning as soon as the place opens at 9am. This means that the request will go to the surgery on Monday morning and the drugs should be with me on Wednesday, yes? Well that's how it has been for the last eight years.
Now, it seems, the surgery has a "Prescriptions Clerk" so when the request arrives on Monday morning there is a very good chance that the drugs will not be delivered until Friday, if we are lucky. This is progress and efficiency.
A week ago I called in the request for my medication and for Insulin for Mr M. The nice lady who answered the phone said "it should be with you on FRiday, will you be in because the insulin has to be refrigerated?" I said yes.
Friday came and so did part of my medication and NONE of the insulin for Mr M. I rang the pharmacy and I was told that the scrip for the insulin had only just come from the surgery so it would be delivered on Saturday. I was told to ring the surgery about the non appearance of part of my medication as they had only sent what the surgery prescribed.
I rang the surgery and was told that a post-dated scrip would be issued on Monday because that particular drug was not due to be repeated until July 10. I tried to query this and was told to "ring on Monday morning to see if it has been sent".
So now it is Saturday and we are waiting for the man to arrive with the insulin. I ring the pharmacy at 12 noon and they say it is with the delivery driver. We wait
And wait,
And wait.
At 6pm we decide that the delivery man is not coming but we can't call anyone to find out and Mr M does not have enough Insulin for Sunday. We contact the Out of Hours Doctors service, which used to be OOHDOC but is now Gwent GP Out Of Hours Doctors service and has a new number.
They talk briefly with Mr M and then say they will ring him back - in the next hour.
Now it is Sunday and we have to go to the Pharmacy in Sainsburys to get a supply of insulin so that Mr M can inject. We are not happy and the stress is making us both feel quite sick
This morning I ring the pharmacy as soon as they open and ask if there was any particular reason why the delivery man didn't deliver the insulin on Saturday. They say they will ring me back.
They ring back within five minutes and say "He tried to deliver but no one was in"
I shoot that down in flames and tell the nice lady that I sat in my sitting room watching the front gate waiting for the man to deliver because we had things to do and places to go and we couldn't because of the need to get the insulin into the fridge.
She goes away, promising that the pharmacist would investigate.
Meanwhile
I ring the surgery to find out why only part of my medication arrived and I am told to "ring back at 11am when the prescriptions clerk will be able to help you. I'm afraid I got a little upset and told the haughty lady on the phone that their inefficiency had already caused us to lose a weekend of planned events and now I was being forced to stay home from a planned holiday because they didn't send my medication. So She asked me where I was going!!! I told her it was none of her business, she was fobbing me off by expecting me to ring back again for someone else to try and explain why a simple repeat prescription couldn't be done like it has been done for the last eight years and I put the phone down before I started cussing
Then I forgot to ring back at 11am. I was busy and suddenly it was gone 1pm when the prescription query service ends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am composing a letter. I will keep it brief.
Meanwhile back at the pharmacy.
The head pharmacist rang me and explained that he had questioned the driver who said he couldn't find the address. His satnav took him to a house marked 50 but there was no one there. He didn't know what to do and couldn't ring the pharmacy because they close at 12 on a Saturday. They were falling over themselves to be apologetic. He explained that the driver is new and is on a month's trial.
I will see how it goes.
My thanks to Sian for inventing this meme to keep me writing and give me somewhere to vent my frustration
4 comments:
We've had this happen here too. And because we go to collect ours it has meant failed trips in rush hour traffic with nowhere to park at the other end and it really isn't great for the blood pressure! Very frightening when insulin is involved, though: that's worth a rant!
Hope the rest of the week is better
Oh what an ordeal. Wouldn't it be nice if they concentrated their efforts to get it right the first time. It seems to me that no one takes pride in their jobs anymore.
I've had that happen to me so many times. It's an added stress that simply isn't necessary if people did their jobs properly. I hope you manage to get it sorted.
Oh my goodness, what a terrible time you have had. I hope very much that the surgery will get all of this sorted for you. Especially when it concerns absolutely essential things like insulin :(.
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