Julia went down to pick up some dressings for my leg. There were none, and the pharmacy denied all knowledge of them.
Rewind for a moment – a couple of posts ago I referred to having an argument and informing the GP’s reception that I considered their actions unacceptable.
It took me about half an hour on Friday and I left it that the pharmacy would order the dressings (if the doctor could be bothered to process the prescription) and have them ready for either Tuesday or Wednesday. I told them that I needed them for Tuesday, so it was urgent.
On Tuesday I queued, was told they had no dressings for me. Went to the nurse, who found some bandages in the back of a cupboard (GPs no longer carry stocks of dressings because they don’t want to pay for them out of their budget) and then went back to the pharmacy to queue again and listen to other people complaining about the service. I was given various excuses but told that they would be ready for me this afternoon.
And so Julia went down to pick them up (as mentioned in the first sentence). It took her two hours to sort it out. Yes, two hours.
There was no prescription, so I don’t know what we had discussed in the pharmacy the day before. Julia had to collect one from the GP. She took it to the pharmacy, queued, and discovered that it was addressed to another supply company (that’s the second time the doctor has done that, and unless you have the paper in your hand you can’t tell). Back to the doctor. Back to the pharmacy queue. They don’t stock them (which we had already discovered – they don’t stock any dressings due to space constraints) and they will have them tomorrow afternoon. I have an appointment for new dressings tomorrow morning but the surgery searched round and say they have enough in the cupboard to change the dressing.
Some of the dressings I have had over the last week have been pathetic. No wonder it isn’t healing. I could do better myself, but they won’t give me the name of the things I need. I am, however, going to search Amazon tonight as this is getting past a joke.
So, in case you got lost in the detail –
Pharmacy, pathetic shambles.
GP surgery, equally pathetic shambles.
The sad thing is that they are both staffed by people who are generally friendly and helpful, but trapped in some sort of system that encourages failure.
To give you some idea of what I do at work – I pack about 150 parcels a month and once every two or three months I get one wrong. Even if you say I only do 100 parcels and get one wrong every month the defect rate is 1%.
In the last eighteen months I have had about 40 interactions with the surgery and pharmacy. The surgery had let me down at least eight times and the pharmacy about the same. It’s a little difficult to remember as I don’t actually keep notes. Defect rate 40%.
Who would think a pharmacy didn’t carry dressings?
It was a surprise to me!
I am sorry you are going through all this, Quercus. The virus definitely has made things worse over here for getting things done. Maybe you or Julia know someone with medical expertise that could help you determine what to purchase on your own?
I’m so pleased that my fear that your title may have been describing yourself was unvalidated – I think
🙂 Fear not, I’m just getting better and better . . .
To what extent can any of this be laid at the foot of the Corona virus
It has exacerbated an existing situation. I used to avoid the pharmacy and the electronic system but had it forced on me by the virus. Inefficiency was already there, but has become worse.
This is no good at all. You have my sympathy as inefficiency in the delivery of medical services makes a bad situation much much worse.
It’s like being trapped in abad dream, and then they dragged Julia in too, so I feel guilty about that too.
I can that you might but it couldn’t be helped.
🙂
So sorry you are going through all of this. Stress does not help healing.
True. I am trying to relax and sleep and do all the right things but there is always the question of the next set of dressings in my mind.
Sad. And scary. They need to get it right most of the time. People’s lives can be at stake.
🙂 Yes, it’s not good. 90% of them are wonderful but there are clearly a few who don’t pull their weight.
Sigh.
Onward and upward!