v. small update on the missing tablets

Everyday living
1

Well, not much news, except to say that after being repeatedly thwarted by the weather in my intent to go in person (it’s about half hour’s walk away, and not on any of my usual routes), I have finally phoned the pharmacy about the missing tablets.

Not much news but a little that was interesting, shall we say.

Apparently, the pharmacist is no longer on the premises anymore, but has moved to a local doctor’s surgery (not mine, a different one). Could the fact there’s no longer a pharmacist routinely present have anything to do with this?

The lady who took my call is obviously NOT a pharmacist - just counter staff, but she took my call very seriously, agreed it’s a safety issue, and said it’s not acceptable!

She is going to speak to the pharmacist about it, and he will call me tomorrow (would have been today, only I am going out to college shortly, and don’t want to be late because I’m waiting for a call).

But how interesting he’s no longer on the premises, eh? Does that make it more likely to be pilfering, I wonder, because there’s nobody overseeing? Or does it just mean there’s nobody checking - or whoever’s checking isn’t a trained person? Not that you should really need much training to do a visual inspection that drugs are all present and nothing suspicious about their condition.

Watch this space - we’ll see what he says tomorrow. Already feeling a bit anxious, as I feel sure he will try to persuade me I took them myself, and got confused. I’ve asked myself a thousand times if that is possible, but thanks to all those here who said: “Trust your instincts - if you know you didn’t take them, you didn’t take them!”

Tina

x

2

Hi Tina

Missed this thread. Sounds interesting-what tablets have gone missing?

We used to use a pharmacy that was always making errors. One time, they delivered someone else’s drugs.

Once the meds came with wrong dosage in package, to what had been prescribed. In the end, we reported them to our GP and moved to another chemist.

xx

3

Tina, I’m pleased to see you aren’t letting this go, and glad the lady you spoke with took you seriously.

But surely there should be a qualified pharmacist on the premises - that is if they’re still dispensing controlled drugs from that outlet, or have they moved that part of their business to the new premises at the surgery?

Anyway, good luck with it.

Ben

4

Well, five o’clock has been and gone, I’ve been home all day, and absolutely nil heard from the pharmacy.

Whilst I would love to think that’s because they’re conducting a thorough investigation, and will get back to me with news, I’m afraid my cynical side says it’s either been forgotten, or they are deliberately ignoring it, in the hope I’ll just shut up and go away.

I’ve been anxious all day about the call - I don’t know why I’m anxious, because it’s not me who’s screwed anything up, but I just hate anything like this, where it’s my word against theirs. I know I have a duty to fellow patients not to just let it go, because slack pharmacy practices could be dangerous or even fatal to somebody.

I think they are open 'til half-past-six, but something tells me the head honcho won’t be there 'til that time, and even if he is, won’t be phoning me as a priority, at the end of the working day.

Quick recap for Blossom, as you missed it: When I opened a new box of Baclofen recently - the third in a set of four that were all delivered pre-Christmas, I found that one of the cards had six tablets missing. I don’t just mean a miscount - I mean the blisters were actually popped and the tablets gone. I double checked, but they weren’t loose in the bottom of the box or anything.

To me, this means one of two things: either part-used prescriptions people have returned are somehow re-entering the supply chain (so we don’t know what conditions they’ve been kept in, or whether they’ve even been intentionally tampered with) OR staff pilfering.

I didn’t take any of the tablets from the suspicious box, but I’d already used two other boxes from the same batch, and was forced to start on the fourth, otherwise I’d have run out of Baclofen. Obviously, if it had been the first box I’d opened, instead of the third, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to take any of the tablets from any of the boxes, but too late now.

Tina

x

5

Oh, P.S. Sorry Ben, no idea how it works with the pharmacist no longer being physically based in store.

I don’t know if that means store staff are now just glorified errand boys (and girls), and any actual dispensing is done at the doctor’s, or what.

Tina

6

HI Tina

You are absolutely right not to let this go. Have you spoke to your gp practice about it, it’s possible other patients may have had similar problems with this chemist.

It only takes a break down in staffing problems or poor communication between chemist staff for things to go wrong.

We had to use the chemist I mentioned above at Christmas. Long story but my husband ended up losing his cool with them and that is not like him. They take too much on and haven’t got the staff to perform in a competent way.

Good luck xx