How come it takes the chemist so long?

Khannie

I mean, come on!!!! My wife gives in her pill prescription, and gets the packet like 20 minutes later! This doesn't seem chemist dependent. It's everywhere! Getting loose pills (i.e. non-pre-packaged) adds 10 minutes.

What's the goof? I'm sure someone out there can answer this. There must be a reason.

(I'm not suggesting that they sit on their bums....I just want to know what they're doing).

angeldelight

Lol I'm goin into 1st year Pharmacy so post again in about 4 years if you haven't found out since and I'll gladly let ya know

sunbeam

I find it depends on the pharmacy. My local one consistently takes 20+ minutes to give me my prescription and they never seem that busy. The one in the next town takes 2-3 minutes.

GuanYin

sunbeam wrote:

I find it depends on the pharmacy. My local one consistently takes 20+ minutes to give me my prescription and they never seem that busy. The one in the next town takes 2-3 minutes.

Being a community pharmacist isn't much more taxing than being a newsagents. The issue is with responsability. The pharmacist is liable for teh drugs released. So they must be dispensed and signed off by a pharmacist.

Now phamracists are paid alot of money and although you need one on site to approve outgoing medication, you don't want to have too many (unless you wanna go bankrupt) so there can be a backlog.

Its health and safety really.

Khannie

Thanks for all your replies!

Capt'n Midnight

AFAIK sometimes tablets have to be made up on the spot, as is mix the powder and use a pressing machine to squash it together. Since they aren't made in a factory then they don't have little labels on them telling the apart so you can store them in case they get mixed up.

John

I used to work in a chemist and if you've ever seen a typical stockroom you'd understand why it takes so long. Even with it kept in perfect order it can take a couple of minutes to locate everything, you have to keep checking and doublechecking that what you have in your hand is the correct dosage (you don't want to give someone 100mg when they need 500mg). The computer record of your prescriptions needs to be updated and hard copies need to be printed and checked. This is before they count the pills and print off the labels with the instructions on them. And normally there's only one pharmacist so if there's only one person in front of you and they're on a load of different medications (as older people generally are) it can take a long time to fill a prescription.

Khannie

Now /that's/ that I'm talking about. That's the comprehensive answer I was looking for. Thanks John2.

Didn't know that Capt'n. That's interesting.

Still, would have thought that the pill script could be filled quickly and easily, I suppose it just averages out with those with easily filled prescriptions suffering because of those with complex ones.

Thanks again to all.

Victor

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

AFAIK sometimes tablets have to be made up on the spot, as is mix the powder and use a pressing machine to squash it together.

Do they still do that in this day and age? Where's the quality control in that?

John

No, they don't do this anymore, least not in most chemists as it takes up way too much time. Although the chemist I worked in did do its own concoctions (secret formula cough syrup and verruca paste and all that jazz).

Tiriel

John2 wrote:

Although the chemist I worked in did do its own concoctions (secret formula cough syrup and verruca paste and all that jazz).

how do they sell these.. licencing/packaging etc.?

John

Well all of the contents are safe, over the counter medicine and stuff like glycerine for the cough syrup. They're just sold in generic bottles and tubs with labels with all the required instructions and warnings.

Tiriel

sounds good.. and are they cheaper than the branded ones then?

GuanYin

John2 wrote:

Well all of the contents are safe, over the counter medicine and stuff like glycerine for the cough syrup. They're just sold in generic bottles and tubs with labels with all the required instructions and warnings.

Erm... I'm not sure this is legal.

Exactly what do they sell?

Any combination of drugs sold as a remedy is subject to EU and/or FDA approval.

Redshift

Some drugs are kept in a time locked safe and after the code is entered there is a delay before the safe will open I have come across this a couple of times. Maybe this is the case for you.

angeldelight

Victor wrote:

Do they still do that in this day and age? Where's the quality control in that?

Pharmacists are trained from year 1 in how to compound dosage forms to a v high standard. In a factory it's mostly ppl with science degrees or less that would be down on the floor as it were, with pharmacists only doing random quality control tests, and not on every batch.... you're prob better off if pharmacist has to make up a medicine for you believe it or not!

GuanYin

angeldelight wrote:

Pharmacists are trained from year 1 in how to compound dosage forms to a v high standard. In a factory it's mostly ppl with science degrees or less that would be down on the floor as it were, with pharmacists only doing random quality control tests, and not on every batch.... you're prob better off if pharmacist has to make up a medicine for you believe it or not!

If you actually think that all science degree's are lesser to the one you are studying for, you really have alot to learn.

There are a multitude of QA and QC protocols on these factory floors and GMP is run in all of them.

Everything is accountable and traceable and to be fair, what the technicians do is no less basic than what the average pharmacist could do, except the technicians have a hell of a lot better accountability system.

angeldelight

No, I didn't mean that a science degree is less important or whatever, I'm saying that we spend 4 years learning how to do something, while they don't. It is pharmacists most of time in charge of QC in factories so therefore you'd expect them to be able to compound to a high degree of quality themselves.. Just meant that stuff you get from pharmacist should be of equal quality to what you get in a box from a manufacturer if pharmacist is doing their job right

GuanYin

angeldelight wrote:

No, I didn't mean that a science degree is less important or whatever, I'm saying that we spend 4 years learning how to do something, while they don't. It is pharmacists most of time in charge of QC in factories so therefore you'd expect them to be able to compound to a high degree of quality themselves.. Just meant that stuff you get from pharmacist should be of equal quality to what you get in a box from a manufacturer if pharmacist is doing their job right

Gotta disagree with you there, while industry pharmacists often hold high end QC jobs they are in no way i n the majority and in fact Chemistry PhD, Msc and Bsc graduates would probably far outnumber the BPharms.

I'm heavily involved in the Pharm industry through an organisation that promotes education and links in academia/industry and although abroad there are more BPharms in industry than here, the numbers are still shockingloy low.

As for pharmacists produce, when it comes to formulating drugs dosage forms, most of the guidelines are there to follow and anyone could do it, the Pharmacy degree only really gives you accountability, not a special skill, which is why one must always be on premises, but human error is still there and while there hasn't been a fatal incorrect dosage form in this country in quite a while, process lines don't have the same issues.

angeldelight

Ok, I don't really care anyways so I presume you're right, I was just quoting stuff from PSI.