Unfiltered Story #278172

(Before we were ordered to go into lockdown but everyone was talking about it, I made my way from my house in South London to my boyfriend’s flat in North London with the intention of staying there for the duration of the lockdown. I take five medications daily, two of them twice daily, and I have to request new prescriptions every month. I followed my surgery’s instructions to email them with my full name, date of birth, and the three medications I was running out of, as well as the full address of [pharmacy #1 close to my boyfriend’s flat]. On Friday I went to [pharmacy #1] to pick up my prescriptions. After I got home I realised that they had given me [medications #1 and #2], but not [medication #3], so I call them.)

Me: *after confirming who I was* Hi, I requested three medications, but was only given two.
Pharmacist: I’m sorry, we were only sent a request for [medication #1] and [medication #2]. If you call your surgery and tell them, they might send through a new request and you might be able to pick it up later in the day.
(By the time I realised and called [pharmacy #1] my surgery was closed for the weekend, so I had to wait until today (Monday) to call.)

Me: *again after confirming who I am, I explain the problem to the receptionist at the surgery*
Receptionist: Well it says here that [medication #3] was sent to the pharmacy four days before [medications #1 and #2].
Me: Okay, but the pharmacy is saying they never got the third prescription, they were only sent two. Could you send through a new one please?
Receptionist: No I can’t, we already sent through all three prescriptions to the pharmacy. You have to go to them and ask if they have it.
Me: *lightbulb moment* Which pharmacy was it sent to, please?
Receptionist: [Pharmacy #2, which is round the corner from the surgery in South London].
Me: Right, that’s the problem then. I’m currently in North London, and in my email I asked for all three prescriptions to be sent to [pharmacy #1]. I can’t travel nearly 2 hours across the city to [pharmacy #2] right now because we’re in lockdown.
Receptionist: Oh… I don’t know why that happened then. That’s strange. I’ll send a new prescription to [pharmacy #1] now but you may have to wait a few days to collect it.
Me: *sighing internally* Great, thank you. Have a good day.

(If this were the first time they’d messed up a prescription I’d be sympathetic, because I know how stressful and chaotic it must be for them right now. But almost every month even before Coronavirus happened there was a problem with my prescriptions. Sometimes they wouldn’t get sent to [pharmacy #2] until a week or more after my request, sometimes they only sent some medications through, and a number of times they tried to get me to make a doctor’s appointment to be prescribed the same medication I’ve been taking for over a year. I didn’t even get a “sorry” for leaving me with four days supply of essential medication. Fingers crossed they actually sent it to the right place this time, and that I don’t run out before I can pick it up.)