Prescription number 077954
May 30th, 2008 at 05:03pm
After seeing a neurologist this afternoon to discuss ongoing persistent migraines, I visited the pharmacy in Cooleman Court to hand in an almost unreadable prescription. I left with prescription receipt number 077954 and returned about ten minutes later, at which time the pharmacist was summoned to talk to me about the medication.
I don’t know about you, but when a pharmacist looks at a box of medication and announces that he has never seen it before and has no idea what it does, and then decides to read bits of the medicine’s documentation to me, I am not filled with confidence.
He managed to retract more confidence a short time later when he thought that Lexapro (the other medication that I am taking at the moment) was two different medications, and didn’t know what either of them did.
This is a contrast to my usual pharmacy where advice from the pharmacist comes in the form of stickers on the box. Human interactions are generally limited to “Here’s your prescription, pay at the counter”. If this is the standard of care in our pharmacies, perhaps there isn’t anything to lose by letting supermarkets have in-store pharmacies…as long as they don’t start charging us by the litre.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Samuel's Editorials
3 Comments
1. padders | May 30th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
An “unreadable prescription”?? Good grief, does your GP not produce computer-generated, perefectly readable scripts? Talk about the dark ages!
I recently presented an easy-to-read prescription at my local (for the past 20 years) pharmacy, and when I collected it the pharmacist (who doesn’t look more than 20) nodded to me and asked me if I had taken this medication before. I said I had not, and he went on to explain the dose. Nice chap. No doubt he was curious at the dose prescribed, as the drug is usually prescribed for a condition other than what was afflicting me. I, apparently, should have been “cured” by a side-effect. Didn’t happen, though. But not pharm-guy’s fault. Anyhow, it is worth shopping around and using word of mouth to find a good chemist (and a GP who is computer-literate!)
2. Samuel | May 30th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
My GP still writes prescriptions and, as I discovered today, the neurologist does too. I can’t understand why, it would be much easier for everyone if they were computer generated.
I was chatting with one of the neurologist’s receptionists about handwriting while I was waiting for my appointment and she said that they get a few calls a week from pharmacies that can’t read the prescriptions.
3. padders | May 31st, 2008 at 9:48 am
Speaking of which ~ my grandmother was staying with us earlier this year and brought with her a script from her GP of a zillion years who still scribbles in longhand. GM collected her made up script from pharmacy, got into the car with me, and I noticed something strange about the package she was given. “That prescription had a repeat on it, did they give you back the script?” I asked. They hadn’t. I went inside, spoke to same young pharm guy and asked him why he hadn’t gven my grandmother the repeat – as specified on the script. “Oh, is there a repeat on it. It’s a bit hard to read. I was going to call him. Yeah, that does look like a repeat.” Gee whiz! They mustn’t do much handwriting deciphering training in pharm school these days!