Patients Suffer from Pharmacy Failings 

Distressing stories of drug shortages and long waits for prescriptions causing real hardships have been shared with Totnes Pulse in the campaign to get another pharmacy opened in the town.

One woman, Judy, was desperately trying to help a dying friend obtain pain relief to put in her syringe driver. It took visits to Well, Morrisons and Boots in Torquay before all the drugs could be found. Sadly Judy’s friend died the next day.

Judy said: “The delay was the more distressing. If we had a pharmacy in the same building as the surgery (Leatside), as we did when Boots was there, I don’t believe this problem would have arisen.”

The drugs had been prescribed by a duty doctor but on that day Well was closed and Morrisons only had two of the five items in stock, which weren’t ready for collection. Driving to Boots in Torquay in a busy pre-Christmas period she found parking difficult and that Boots only had three of the five drugs, luckily the ones she needed, but again they weren’t ready to pick up for an hour.

She then went back to Morrisons , queued for 20 minutes, and then went back to Boots for the final drugs. “It took between two and three hours and many miles on the road to get this medication,” she said. “My friend was on the edge of not being able to swallow and we were very anxious to get the syringe driver set up. The district nurse was only going to come once we had the medication available.”

A Critical Situation

Mike Mintrum, chair of the Leatside Patients’ Group, said this “harrowing” story was an example of the critical situation in Totnes and one he hoped would add weight to the campaign for a third pharmacy. As reported in the Pulse, one arm of the NHS agreed there should be a new pharmacy to replace Boots, but another arm – NHS Resolutions – rescinded the decision after the parent group of Well appealed.

It seems that patients have no such appeal open to them so a petition is being raised to ask the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to think again. Mike said: “We cannot understand how two small pharmacies that have restricted opening times can be adequate to met the needs of Totnes area patients.”

My friend was on the edge…

Another local, Cathy, said:”Last year my daughter was very ill and I had to leave her and spend hours queuing for her medicines.” She said because Well is shut on weekends and from 6pm most
people went to Morrisons. She said the staff were overworked and often ran out of medicines. “It has been so stressful and everyone is desperate for another chemist to open. Some people get quite upset and angry while they have to wait for so long, perhaps feeling ill. Disabled people have only one seat to share, there is no room for more as it would block the entrance to the supermarket.”

Cathy adds: “Perhaps NHS Resolutions is unaware of the huge number of new housing estates that have been and are still being built in the area. The population has grown enormously and yet there is no increase of infrastructure to cope with this.”

Long Queues

Collecting drugs from Well is problematic for Celia, who after spinal surgery last month has been taking oral morphine. On the day before the late May Bank Holiday her partner went to collect her urgent prescription from Well before it closed for the holiday. There was a long queue and Celia says there seems to be no prioritisation for urgent medicines. She adds: “I think long waits for prescriptions to be dispensed and queues for collection represents very poor customer service. I would not use Well if I thought I had a choice. These customer service issues indicate the need for another pharmacy in Totnes.”

Frustrations

Boots at Leatside used to dispense for 15000 patients. Jacqui Hodgson, a former Totnes mayor and current councillor, is supporting the campaign. She has had her own difficulties collecting medicines from both pharmacies, with long queues being “frustrating and often very stressful.” She believes a third pharmacy would make a real difference to patients and without threatening the livelihood of either Well or Morrisons, both of which have staff exhibiting clear stress, she says. “The latter is evidenced by the lunch hour closure of the Morrisons pharmacy, which I personally witnessed by a clearly exhausted member of staff saying “we need a break”. Indeed they do, they and we all need another pharmacy in Totnes.”