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About: City Hospital (Birmingham)

I am being treated for blood clots in the lungs in the second pregnancy (bilateral pulmonary embolism). Was given by my doctor a prescription for blood thinners- a 3 month supply. First I was put to wait while pregnant for 2 hours at the pharmacy until someone told me they do not have medicine in the stock. I do not drive, I also have a little toddler and I need to change 4 buses in order to get to the hospital. Furthermore, I work full time and can only come on a Saturday/ Sunday to pick up the medicine. The person (who said they were a manager but refused to tell me their name), was extremely rude to me when I told them to order the medicine as I have no possibility of returning in a timely manner (my dose was about to finish and I have a life threatening condition). It was useless to speak to this person as they were shouting at me and had no understanding whatsoever, in spite of my medical condition. I took my prescription back, came for the second time on a Saturday and one pharmacist was helpful enough to give me a 3 weeks dose of the medicine (Arixtra injections) saying they need to order the rest of it and that I will get a phone call when the medicine is ready to collect. Today I have my last injection and received no phone call although I kept the phone constantly on, fully charged and had full reception since I was aware of the importance of the call.

I called the pharmacy back from my own credit and I was put on hold for about 15 minutes by a person in the pharmacy department who asked me to spell the name of my medicine (they didnt accept the term "arixtra", wanted me to spell "Fondoparinux Sodium" for them, just for fun I guess). They told me medicine was ready and when I asked why I didnt receive a call about this they rudely said "this is not something I would know, bye!". I stopped them before they closed the call and told them that I wanted to register a complaint to the manager. They said 'this is not possible' and wanted to close the phone again. I asked them why and had to ask them twice their name. In the end they told me rudely their name and that they would not register a complaint for me and that they do not have the time to investigate such issues and they hang up shouting at me. I find it funny how they have a sign with "stop NHS abuse" at the entrance of the pharmacy and they are entitled to shout at pregnant patients who face life threatening conditions after they have made the mistakes in the first place. A "Sorry" from any member of the staff would have sorted out the situation in an adult manner... I would like to speak to a manager concerning this issue as the NHS staff abusing patients is not normal either.Thank you

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Responses

Response from City Hospital 7 years ago
City Hospital
Submitted on 16/08/2016 at 16:19
Published on nhs.uk on 17/08/2016 at 02:30


Dear Emilia, I am sorry to hear about your appalling experience of our medicines service.

This is totally unacceptable.

I am sorry.

If you experience further problems, please contact me or our Chief Pharmacist Peter Cooke. Toby Lewis, Chief Executive.

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