The Random Thread

[JoM]

Prescriptions again.

I put in repeat requests for my Mom and Joe on Tuesday so walked to the pharmacy around the corner yesterday afternoon to collect them. There’s a sign on the door now saying to allow four days between requesting the prescription to being able to collect it. My Mom’s was ready, once they’d actually found it, but there was no sign of Joe’s being sent through from the surgery. The lady in front of me was having a similar problem too.

I phoned the surgery, despite it being joined on (no entrance without an appointment), and was told that it had definitely been sent (Joe’s given them a letter giving his consent for me to deal with them re occurrences like this because he can’t call and wait on the phone in a long queue from work every time there’s a problem with his prescription, which happens regularly). Anyway, the receptionist even gave a time as to when it was sent through to the pharmacy so it was deemed as being ‘lost’.

I asked if I could re request it and change the nominated pharmacy for us all to Tesco (despite being so useless the one around the corner was convenient during Covid), she checked and said I could email a new request in and it’d go to Tesco.

I did that at around 3pm and just before 6pm I had a text from Tesco to say that the prescription was ready for collection.

That makes a mockery of the local pharmacy saying four days to make up a prescription. It used to be a really good one with long-standing staff members but the original pharmacist left as did most of the staff and now there’s a constant turnover of staff and it’s just so disorganised.

[Kaz]

That's shocking service Jo, you'll definitely get better service from the supermarket pharmacy going forward - ours in Sainsbury's is brilliant, whereas the pharmacy attached to our old surgery was hopeless xx

[Workingman]

Jo, I posted some time ago about a similar problem.... and I also changed my pharmacy, but to Asda.

When I now make a repeat request with the surgery online I take a screen shot of the last page, the one that confirms the order, the items and the time it was made. It has proved useful and Asda has been able to chase up missing items in no time. Cohen's, the one attached to the surgery, seem to think that as they are 'with' the surgery they have a monopoly and are therefore disinterested.

As for texts - they stopped, no explanation other than Covid. Asda sends them once the scrip has been made up so no waiting when collecting.

[Workingman]

Parcel deliveries - or not!

Yesterday I watched the first cricket final then went out to get some bits. There on the downstairs neighbour's steps were three parcels from Amazon - just dumped there!

I knew L & M were away this weekend so I brought the parcels in for safe keeping. The thing is that I was in but whoever dropped the stuff off didn't give me a knock. I have just handed them over and L says that she has had nothing from Amazon to say that they had been delivered.

Anybody walking past could have wandered in and taken them, especially during the night had I not seen them. Talk about terrible service from AMAZON!

[TheOstrich]

Pharmacy - they recommend 5 days for the making up of repeat prescriptions; I give them 7 to be on the safe side.
I see they are starting to plug an online scheme where the surgery gives the pharmacy standing instructions to issue, month by month, a year's worth of prescriptions. That might work for me, but not for Mrs O, who has a couple of medicaments she orders "when required".

Surgery - their website says that repeat prescriptions should be ordered via SystmOnline or the NHS App. There's no mention of manual requests, but they still accept these as there's a "postbox" on the outside wall of the surgery for repeat prescriptions, and properly so IMHO, as not everyone, especially the elderly, has access to the internet or apps. We have reverted to using manual requests, as trying to do the ordering online simply didn't work.

The surgery has changed out of all recognition since Covid; it is now a place most people do their utmost to avoid unless they are desperate (you only have to look at our local town FB page to gather this). Of course, you could argue that's fair enough, a good thing and weeds out the timewasters, but I think a lot of people now won't even attempt to "see a doctor" now unless their right leg had dropped off ...... The eConsult and 111 system tend to send you round in circles, and hanging on the telephone for over an hour before getting through has been reported more than once. Not passing judgement, just sayin' how it is these days.

[JoM]

Ossie, the annoying thing I find when phoning the surgery is the several minutes of advice and instruction before you’ve even get as far as pressing 1, 2 or 3.
eg. if your call is an emergency please hang up and dial 999.

[JoM]

Parcel deliveries - or not!

Yesterday I watched the first cricket final then went out to get some bits. There on the downstairs neighbour's steps were three parcels from Amazon - just dumped there!

I knew L & M were away this weekend so I brought the parcels in for safe keeping. The thing is that I was in but whoever dropped the stuff off didn't give me a knock. I have just handed them over and L says that she has had nothing from Amazon to say that they had been delivered.

Anybody walking past could have wandered in and taken them, especially during the night had I not seen them. Talk about terrible service from AMAZON!

I put in a complaint to Royal Mail recently.
I’d gone to walk Bill and as I was expecting a parcel at some point that week I put a sign on the door (“Royal Mail - if no answer please leave the parcel in the back garden.Thanks”). When I got back I left the sign on the door while I cleaned Bill up in the kitchen but while doing that I had an alert on my phone from the Ring doorbell saying that there was movement by the front door. If the doorbell rings I get a different alert but that hadn’t happened.

When I checked the video it showed the postman walking towards the door, looking at the note and then putting the parcel down on the path before going off on his way. Bear in mind that there are just five slabs between our front door and the pavement so it could’ve been picked up and taken easily. I wouldn’t have known it’d been delivered because he didn’t leave a Red Card Of Doom to say it’d been left somewhere.

A couple of weeks before that I was in the utility room when a parcel came flying over the 6ft back garden wall and landed on the patio. When I looked at the videos they showed the same postman walk past the front of the house without stopping and then the camera on the drive showed him flinging the parcel over the wall from the footpath.

[TheOstrich]

A couple of weeks before that I was in the utility room when a parcel came flying over the 6ft back garden wall and landed on the patio. When I looked at the videos they showed the same postman walk past the front of the house without stopping and then the camera on the drive showed him flinging the parcel over the wall from the footpath.

That's just unbelievable. Can you send those video clips to the Royal Mail?

[saundra]

Couldn't make this up
A bank in town we only have 2
Has had to close while the roof is repaired
Due to damage by seagulls nearest bank is at Beverley 20?mile away

[Kaz]

Seagulls are a blooming nuisance Saundra. We get loads of them here too, and they make mess and cause damage! Why they're protected I don't know That's a long journey to find a bank