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NHS staff and services good; outsourced Lloyds...

Story from nhs.uk

"NHS staff and services good; outsourced Lloyds..."

About: Manchester Royal Infirmary

What I liked

Staff are friendly and efficient (except in the hospital pharmacy).

What could be improved

The clinics (e.g. clinic E) are overcrowded and poorly laid out. There is little or no room for wheel chairs. Extra chairs have been brought in to 'help' with the overcrowding but this makes waiting with and manouvering a wheelchair even more awkward.

Anything else?

The hospital pharmacy seriously lets down the whole NHS Trust. The Pharmacy (situated in the Manchester Eye Hospital) serves all the hospitals on site (i.e. MRI, St Mary's and the Eye hospital) but is simply unable to cope.

On presenting a prescription at the counter, I was told the wait would be 15 to 20 minutes. After 45 minutes I tried to compalin to the Lloyds Pharmacy Manager, only to be told they were too busy to see me. Eventually, after 50 minutes, I was told by the manager that my prescription was just "being labelled" and would be ready in 15 minutes. No plausable explanation, just unbelievable excuses from the manager. In the end, my prescription (one item) took 1 hour and 10 minutes. Other patients had also waited more than an hour. Having used the pharmacy on many occasions in the last eight weeks, such poor service and lame excuses seems to be the norm, not the exception.

The manager showed no interest in trying to improve the service. A service that is reflecting badly on the Trust and its staff.

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Responses

Response from Manchester Royal Infirmary 11 years ago
Manchester Royal Infirmary

Submitted on 16/08/2012 at 10:38
Published on nhs.uk on 05/09/2012 at 20:59

Thank you for taking the time to bring to our attention your experience at Manchester Royal Infirmary. I have spoken with our Renal and Pharmacy teams and can provide you with the following information:

The out-patient clinic is due to be refurbished and I will ensure that the points you make about the environment and wheelchair access are raised to the teams involved in this project.

I am also grateful to you for being so kind as to mention that most staff are friendly and efficient as this is particularly important to us. I was, however, saddened to hear that this was not the case when you visited the Pharmacy service and this lead to you feel let down.

Lloyds Pharmacy have recently taken over the provision of out-patient medication on behalf of Central Manchester Foundation Trust. We believe that ultimately this will allow us to provide a better service to our out-patients and we are currently working with the Lloyds team to ensure that this service meets those expectations.

Fluctuating clinic workloads throughout the day mean that waiting times in the out-patient pharmacy can vary considerably. Lloyds are currently looking at ways to minimise this variation by altering staffing levels and improving workflow so that the service is provided effectively and efficiently, minimising any delay to our patients. One of our Senior Pharmacists is working closely with Lloyds on a daily basis to ensure services provided by them meet the Trust’s exacting standards.

You may wish to provide more details about your experience and if you would like to do this then please do not hesitate to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service on 0161 276 8686 or by e-mailing pals@cmft.nhs.uk

Eve Koutidou

Patient Experience & Quality Project Officer

Central Manchester University Hospitals, NHS Founadtion Trust

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