Always waiting on prescriptions? Absolutely tired of waiting and waiting? Here is why;

 

A pharmacist in the west Sussex area had given me information about why the process of getting a prescription ready takes so long. Well, prescriptions start from the patients and the community. Your GP practice then processes the information, which takes about 2-3 working days. It is then passed and processed onto the pharmacy. Depending on the medication, whether it is Acute or the repeat medication, it will decide how long it will take. Acute medication is mainly used for short term use or immediate use.  Acute medication is usually available on the same day the pharmacy gets the prescription, unless the medication is not a common one and needs to be ordered. Repeat medication usually takes about 2-3 days, although due to stock issues, it can take up to 5-7 days. 

Most of the time your prescriptions is delayed nowadays, one of the main factors is shortage of medication. This means medication isn't available and may take over a week or a month. It solely depends on the supplier who is the provider for the pharmacy to provide medications to its community. Sometimes medications are discontinued and aren't available to be dispensed. Due to that, Pharmacists refer patients back to their GP practice to get an alternative medication.

Another reason is that, there isn't enough staff, while some pharmacies struggle without enough staff, it causes a major delay in dispensing and patients  prescriptions. Not enough staff happens in both GP and Pharmacies. A lot more pressure is put on the current staff that are there, there are a lot of pharmacy closures, and due to that, more workload is put on the pharmacies that are open, and there isn’t enough staff to complete all the required tasks from their own pharmacy and others. Due to closures, pharmacies are pressurized with the high rate of prescriptions, which cause a huge delay in prescriptions getting ready and sometimes causes patients not having medication in time.

The pharmacist and their team want to spread the message that, they are trying, they will continue to try and work the best they can to improve their service and are trying their best to meet the needs of patients. However, not all patients understand the situation and they misunderstand why it is delayed. It isn’t just the pharmacy, it is your GP practice and even the supplier who provides pharmacies with the medications- they all work together and they work hard!