Thanks to the new Electronic Prescription Service, each time my GP prescribes items, the script is sent directly to ABC Pharmacy without me even seeing what's on the script. On many occasions I've waited in the store a very long time for the items to be dispensed and, when they eventually are (and I'm just about to leave the store) I'm told "Oh, one (or two) of the items were not in stock, we'll probably get it in tomorrow." If I had been told this at the outset, I would have gone to another pharmacy but, instead, I'm left at the mercy of the pharmacy getting the items in sometime in the future. I'm profoundly mobility impaired so, each time, I ask "Will you deliver it to me please, as soon as it comes in stock?" Each time I'm told they will and, each time ABC Pharmacy fails to deliver. If I could telephone them to catch up on the missing items, I'd feel a bit more empowered and less hopeless (sitting in, waiting, in pain, for my script) but they never answer their telephone (or have a telephone answer machine switched on). Instead, after ringing for just over two minutes, there is a long tone then the line goes dead. I often have to wait several days before I can muster a neighbour or friend to go up to the ABC Pharmacy and chase up the missing items. As often as not, the items are sitting on the bookshelf at the back of the counter and the Pharmacist hands them over without so much as an apology. I've used this Pharmacy for over 30 years and it was, until about five years ago, a very good Pharmacy. They used to check they had items in stock and, if they didn't, they told you immediately, so you could take your prescription elsewhere. They would deliver promptly and, if there was a delay, they would phone to explain and apologise. Their phone line worked and they would answer their phone promptly. None of that happens now. Whenever I visit the pharmacy there are other customers in there, complaining about one or another failing of the store. Most recently I went into the Pharmacy on the morning of Wednesday, 5th June, immediately after a prescription had been transferred from my GP. After a long wait I was dispensed two items and told the third was not in stock. I asked for it to be delivered as soon as possible (because I'm in pain) and was promised it would be. It is now Saturday, 9th June, ABC Pharmacy has failed to deliver the medicine and I am in agony. They do not answer their telephone so I have no means of communicating with them to find out where my meds are. Perhaps there is an inadequate number of staff on duty (I certainly get that impression) and the Pharmacy lacks investment (a working phone line wouldn't cost much, surely?) but - in recent years - the attitude of the ABC Pharmacy has come across, consistently, as lackadaisical.
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