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Why does the pharmacist take so long?

Started by sevendaughters, September 08, 2019, 08:35:40 AM

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sevendaughters

I'll take 5 from the top (amusing diversion responses) and 1 from the bottom (an answer derived from insight) please Carol.

I was in the hospital the other day with a freshly-minted prescription. Took it along to the hospital pharmacy where the woman at the window looked at it and said "30 minutes".

Looking through the window into the pharmacy lab there were, and this is no lie, approximately 15-20 staff. Some in tabards that said PRESCRIPTION CHECKER DO NOT DISTURB. Some were probably pharmacy students. But still, even if they're doing stuff for the wards and the 3 people in the waiting room, 30 minutes seems long.

As a kid I thought these magical men and women were going behind the partition, whipping out the mortar and pestle and putting together these wonderful tabs and capsules themselves. Artisans devoted to the science of medicine and the art of inserting life-giving things in really small containers. Imagine how disillusioned I was to find out they just have a load of stuff in drawers and they get it out like a common meff.

This has been pretty much standard in any chemist too. A long wait to grab something off a shelf that sometimes has been packaged already with a pre-printed label with your name on it. Why? Why do pharmacists need a degree to do what seems to the naked eye to be high stakes picking and packing?

Every single month that my wife goes to collect her meds, they fuck it up one way or another and try to pin it on her in some way or pass the buck to the GP or supplier or anyone else. They are fucking useless aids peadwraith bifida boys.

GMTV

Medicine gets placed in the wee plastic baskets for half an hour to marinade.

Thursday

Would love to be in an industry where you can just tell a customer/client "It takes this long... Maybe longer. Now fuck off and leave me alone."

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

They take some of your drugs themselves to make sure they work.

You can file this under "unamusing diversion responses".

I actually know a couple who run a pharmacy. Fuck me do they take themselves seriously. I dared to suggest that it was "like running a sweet shop" and they bored me senseless for the rest of the evening about the pressures blah blah blah.

If only they were under more pressure to get the fucking stuff right for the time it's supposed to be available. It's another reason why I will never take any medication of any kind. I can't be dealing with these third world cum dustbins.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Thursday on September 08, 2019, 08:54:27 AM
Would love to be in an industry where you can just tell a customer/client "It takes this long... Maybe longer. Now fuck off and leave me alone."

Enterprise software is like this.

shiftwork2

I work with pharmacists.  Boring profession that attracts dullards who love rigid processes.  They definitely consider themselves a cut above in the hospital environment, partly I think due to being registered with a General ... Council like the medics.  The potential to do harm is reasonably high I suppose, with all the interactions and contraindications but everything they do is written down in the BP so they just refer to that.  No judgement required, no opinions to defend.

If you ever see someone dutifully waiting for the green man on a completely clear pedestrian crossing - pharmacist, or a German.

Al Tha Funkee Homosapien

It feels like a profession that is ripe for automation. Elon Musk will be along soon with his AI powered Pharmabot.

Docs just feed in the prescriptions and the AI checks all the interactions/contraindications, deprescribes meds for patients over a certain age, calls you a paedo, and then shoots out your drug bag at you.

Zetetic

Quite a few hospitals have robots for the actual retrieval froma shelf, I believe.


Zetetic

Quote from: The Boston Crab on September 08, 2019, 08:51:40 AM
Every single month that my wife goes to collect her meds, they fuck it up one way or another
Do you often run into these sorts of issues?

imitationleather

It's all about Pharmacy2U these days, lads. Obviously doesn't really work for one-off medicines but we're all rocking chronic incurable illnesses on here, right?

Al Tha Funkee Homosapien

Quote from: Zetetic on September 08, 2019, 09:53:31 AM
Quite a few hospitals have robots for the actual retrieval froma shelf, I believe.



Yeah I know, but are they AI POWERED with Elon Musk's soul?



But seriously, it takes that long because like everyone else in NHS/healthcare related jobs they are super busy and fucked off with life.

Jockice

The pharmacists I go to cocks up my order about 25 percent of the time. I've only been going there for about a decade and a half.

My only other pharmacist story is that a bloke in the year below me became one. I wasn't friends with him there but we definitely knew each other. About a decade after leaving I went to pick up a prescription at my local chemists and he served me. So I said: "Hiya Matthew. How are you?'' He went: "Sorry, do I know you?" Took me quite by surprise. I mean usually EVERYONE I went to school with recognises me and my name was on the prescription anyway. I reckon he'd been taking some of those drugs himself.

Quote from: Zetetic on September 08, 2019, 09:54:09 AM
Do you often run into these sorts of issues?

I don't understand the question. Every single month, yeah.

Zetetic

Might have to consider if it's deliberate.




The most trouble I've ever had with pharmacy was trying to sort out restarting my repeat prescription after I'd messed up my meds check-up. Took about 20 minutes, and 15 of that was waiting for the GP reception to pick up.

Usually takes under 2 minutes to pickup a repeat. Nothing ever wrong.

There's a lesson there.

Buelligan

It's like a chef, they take so long because they have to taste every dish.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: shiftwork2 on September 08, 2019, 09:25:42 AM
I work with pharmacists.  Boring profession that attracts dullards who love rigid processes.  They definitely consider themselves a cut above in the hospital environment, partly I think due to being registered with a General ... Council like the medics.  The potential to do harm is reasonably high I suppose, with all the interactions and contraindications but everything they do is written down in the BP so they just refer to that.  No judgement required, no opinions to defend.

If you ever see someone dutifully waiting for the green man on a completely clear pedestrian crossing - pharmacist, or a German.

True dat

Quote from: Zetetic on September 08, 2019, 10:01:21 AM
Might have to consider if it's deliberate.




The most trouble I've ever had with pharmacy was trying to sort out restarting my repeat prescription after I'd messed up my meds check-up. Took about 20 minutes, and 15 of that was waiting for the GP reception to pick up.

Usually takes under 2 minutes to pickup a repeat. Nothing ever wrong.

There's a lesson there.

I don't know what you mean by that but because you never speak your mind, I'll show you how it's done:

I hope your meds are wrong this month and you somersault in front of a train.

Zetetic


touchingcloth

I reckon the pharmacists take some of the drugs themselves.

touchingcloth

Quote from: The Boston Crab on September 08, 2019, 08:51:40 AM
Every single month that my wife goes to collect her meds, they fuck it up one way or another and try to pin it on her in some way or pass the buck to the GP or supplier or anyone else. They are fucking useless aids peadwraith bifida boys.

Have you considered getting a wife that doesn't need to be filled with meds? Cheaper in the long run, I imagine.

Twit 2

I wonder if they take so long because they're trying the medicines out for themselves?

Quote from: Zetetic on September 08, 2019, 10:31:42 AM
Depressingly, I always speak my mind.

Even this is needlessly, characteristically oblique.

imitationleather

First time I got anti-depressants I had to wait at the counter for six weeks because the pharmacists take the drugs themselves and that's how long has to pass before an effect is noticeable.

sevendaughters

Quote from: Al Tha Funkee Homosapien on September 08, 2019, 09:57:26 AM
But seriously, it takes that long because like everyone else in NHS/healthcare related jobs they are super busy and fucked off with life.

I know they're busy but, and hear me out: I have a prescription for a basic as hell drug. It's there on the shelf under 'A'. I can point them to it. It comes in two dosages. The consultant has written it so all the woman at the window has to do (in theory! there could be an arcane process here I do not know about) is walk over and get it, put it in a bag, and hand it over. I've got contactless. It feels like it could be done a lot faster.

While we're at it, why do bus drivers never have change when they operate a mobile till?

touchingcloth

While we're at it, why is the best area of the bus's mobile till to store notes anyone has been able to invent the driver's breast pocket?

Zetetic


pancreas

I don't know, why does the pharmacist take so long?

Because they're taking a lot of drugs!

touchingcloth

Does it actually take a long time, or does it just seem that way because they're on drugs?