"Appaling treatment by Reception Staff"

I put in a prescription on Wednesday 14th August for injection pen needles and my Sertraline 50mg tablets. When I went to the chemist yesterday (Wednesday 21st August) to collect this, they informed me that it had not been sent through to them.

I went straight into the surgery to find out what had happened, I was told the prescription was not put in, which is most definitely was, but that she would get it sorted for me and sent to the chemist for me to collect today. I was asked to call the surgery a midday to confirm this was ready for me to collect.

When I called the surgery at 13:45, the Receptionist I spoke to had no idea what I was talking about but that she would put the prescription into the doctor to be signed and sent to the chemist, she said she couldn’t guarantee that it would be ready before the chemist shut though. What was even stranger was that there was a prescription at the chemist for the needles but not for the tablets.

I was told to call back in a hour, which I did and it still hadn’t been done. Despite me telling 3 different Receptionists that I must have these today as I am going on holiday tomorrow (Friday 23rd August) at 4am, this was not being prioritised.

I called back again at 16:40 and it had still not been signed by the doctor. The Receptionist I spoke to this time was the most rude person I have spoken to and not helpful at all. The conversation ended in her raising her voice, which in turn made me raise my voice to get myself heard, and then she hung up the phone on me. This is completely unprofessional and unacceptable behaviour and I am extremely angry and distressed from the entire experience.

The thing that has upset me the most here was that the 3rd Receptionist I spoke to told me ‘to be fair, you need to give us 48 hours notice for prescriptions, we are trying to do our best but cannot guarantee’. I initially put in the prescription over a week ago so the 48 hours notice was more than given.

I went to the pharmacy as soon as the Receptionist hung up on me to check they had the tablets in stock as if they didn’t then I would need to go to the surgery and have the prescription printed, which the same Receptionist had also told me could not be done when I know it can as I have had prescriptions printed before. When I arrived at the pharmacy the prescription had miraculously been sent to them and was ready for me to collect, very convenient as it was clearly sent over to stop me going to the surgery in person. The medication I was requesting was for my anxiety and this made me so anxious that I would be without my medication.