Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

More medical stuff.
I've been using Lloyds direct for my repeat prescriptions and its been working well for years, they just send me a message when each individual medicine gets low and reminds me to order.
They have now moved me over to Pharmacy2U or some such place, where you cant set individual reminders and they want 10 days to deliver.

Just spent 10 minutes on the phone to them asking how the reminders part works, I was told I need to get in touch with my surgery and tell them I'm now using these people and the surgery needs to make sure all 5 of my repeats run out on the same date, so as to make life easier for them.
Needless to say I told her where to go.

Pharmacy2U is basically just a shop and they just want to sell you stuff.

 

I'll see how it goes, I can see where they are coming from, they dont want to be sending out lots of packages each month, each with one item in, like Lloyds did.

But I'm not sure my Surgery is going to want to play ball with them, I did try to get them to do that when I used to go to the chemist to pick up, but it never worked they always got out of sync.
I can look around at other apps if I get too fed up with them.

Nearest Boots is right down in the town, I never go there, lots of strange people.

 

Been using Pharmacy2U for a couple or maybe 3 years now. They've merged, been taken over, or even bought out Lloyds. I honestly can't really fault them. The only point I'd make is that they can overdo the reminders. I've never bought anything from their online shop so can't comment on that. They're pretty quick, as soon as our doctor authorises our request it's only a matter of a day or two before the postman knocks on our door with the drugs, all well packaged. In our case there have been times when our surgery must be busy or something as they are a bit tardy at authorising the order. You can see online what stage your order is at. We have quite a lot of drugs on prescription because my hubby has a lot of health problems.

I don't bother with any reminders, once a week I put a week's supply of tablets in a daily dispenser, at that time if there's not a full week's backup I reorder.

 

@Jenny_Aster, I've emailed the parish council to see what they know about it and the family grapevine in the village is swinging into action!

 

I wish I was that organised.

 

Good luck, see if you can get the local paper involved. A big stink now could cause the new owners to back off.

Edited to add, don't be fobbed off by anyone, if they try then ask for proof that could stand up in a court of law.

 

Think it's because I'm just NOT that organised that I need the dispensers . We have one each, mine has just one compartment for a day, my husband's has 4 compartments a day as some of his meds he has 4x a day. I can't be trusted these day to remember if I'd taken my meds and vitamins or not. I'm much more strict with my husband's pills than mine seeing that he can no longer be trusted to keep track. It's a system that works for us.

A while ago an elderly 95 year old uncle was in hospital for about 2 months before he died, he was in a system where his pharmacy would send his meds automatically in a weekly dispenser so his medication was manageable for him. His 95 year old wife who you can imagine was struggling at the time didn't have any idea how to stop the deliveries, or perhaps she was afraid of stopping them in case she couldn't restart them when he (hopefully) came out of hospital. Her cupboard was full of the filled dispensers. When he died, and to help our aunt, we took the drugs to a local pharmacy for disposal, where all had to be incinerated. What an awful waste of money. It's good that we have to apply for repeat prescriptions rather than being automatic.

 

A word of warning from someone who works in a pharmacy. Using online pharmacies to dispense drugs may be convenient for you personally but it’s contributing to the closure of pharmacies so one day if you need advice, or to buy a pharmacy only product or want your antibiotics immediately that service won’t be available. Obviously I am biased but pharmacies are struggling to stay open and they are a valuable service that will be lost if we are not careful.

 

I think it always comes down to the area, and the circumstances, but I understand your concerns @Debs64 . My daughter recently needed a bit of advice as she gets terrible problems with the skin on her hands as she has to wash them so frequently in her job. No problem - a cream given to her and saved a trip to the doctor. Perfect.
My parents used those little dispensers for their medication, but my Dad was always worried about not having the prescription in time etc, so everything was duplicated every time, including paracetamol. When he died and we were clearing the house - the medicine cupboard was full of packets of them. Fortunately, we were all able to take some, so no waste, but it could easily have been like the situation @Jenny_Aster described.

Much harder when you're older and need certain medication, and naturally worry about it.

 

I hear what you're saying, but is that still true now that they are basically the replacement GP service? As it becomes increasingly difficult to speak to a GP, and we are actively encouraged to see a pharmacist instead, that must be driving footfall into the pharmacies?

 

The only reason I started using online and delivery was because the local Lloyd's chemist was awful.
They had about three out front staff but still only managed to serve one customer at a time, the queue often went out the door.
And when you finally got to the end of the queue they always said, it will be 15minutes, even if you had taken the prescription in two days before.
They did get all new staff at one point, but now it's changed hands and has lots of bare shelves, I often wonder if it's still in business it looks so empty.

 

I think that just highlights the problems some people can have @pete .
Never straightforward is it?
I hope you get a solution that works for you. Glad your appointment is working out too. Good luck with it all.