PATIENTS ‘WAITING UP TO FIVE DAYS FOR MEDICINE’:
PRESCRIPTION PROCESS SLOWS BUT CHEMIST INSISTS DELAYS ARE ‘OUT OF OUR CONTROL’
SOME people needing medication say they are being forced to wait up to five days for a pharmacy to get it.
Complaints about the service at the Rowlands pharmacy in Caernarfon have included insulin not being ready on time, and long queues.
One customer said their prescriptions were being “assembled” 75 miles away in Wrexham and then sent over to Gwynedd.
Customers in rural areas have also raised concerns, with reports of it taking four days for medications to be issued.
The company said delays were “often the result of problems relating to the manufacture and availability of medicines which are outside our control”.
But politicians criticised the centralisation of the service. The Welsh government recently confirmed changes to prescription services are under way in an attempt to cut costs.
Another customer, who did not want to be named, was also unhappy about the delay in her son’s prescription.
She said: “I was picking up my son’s asthma pump when I was told I would have to wait for another day.
“I went the next day, and it still wasn’t there.
“Usually, I would have to wait for three days before picking up the prescription. But this time round, I had to wait for five days.
“I have been going to that pharmacy for years. It’s a busy pharmacy and whenever I go in there, there are a lot of customers queuing.
“I’ve had to change my pharmacy because I fear it is putting my son’s health at risk.”
Celia Hayward lives in Corwen and has been collecting her prescription from the Denbighshire town’s pharmacy for years.
In July, Rowlands said the length of time for processing repeat prescriptions would increase.
Mrs Hayward explained: “Usually, my prescription would arrive at the pharmacy within three days.
“But then we were told we would have to wait for four days. This would cause irregularities, however, especially when weekends and bank holidays meant there was more of a delay.”
“I think Rowlands Pharmacy should be lessening the time it takes to receive your prescription, not increasing it.”
Mrs Hayward decided to look into the matter and found other members of the community were affected by the wait.
“It’s rural communities like Corwen that are hit the hardest by the delay,” she said.
“If you don’t drive or you are elderly, it’s a massive issue.
“A lot of the customers are vulnerable people, but they want to maintain their independence and quality of life, and they can only do this if they take their prescription regularly.”
“I am unhappy about the situation, and have even considered going private.”
Mrs Hayward has also contacted councillors in the region, including Mabon ap Gwynfor.
The Plaid Cymru’s Assembly candidate for Dwyfor Meirionnydd has received complaints from customers in other parts of North Wales, including Corwen, Y Bala, and parts of Pen Llyn.
He said: “This change in dispensing repeat prescriptions has got people across North Wales angry.
“This is a particular problem in rural Wales because people are having to travel significant distances in order to pick up their prescriptions.
“When they aren’t delivered on time, their health will suffer as well as being expected to make the journey again.
“Patients need assurances that their medication will be delivered on schedule, and I urge the company to look at the time it takes to deliver the medicine so that it reaches the patients quicker.”
A Rowlands spokesman said the issues were down to the availability of medicines, adding: “At Rowlands, we make great efforts to ensure patients can pick up their prescriptions when expected.
“That is the experience of most of our patients, although we are, of course, concerned to hear that some patients at this branch have not had the service they expect.
“We are addressing that. “Despite our best efforts, there are occasions when we are simply not able to obtain certain medicines at a given point in time.
“That is often the result of problems relating to the manufacture and availability of medicines which are outside of our control.”
The spokesman added: “We are committed to ensuring patients have their medication available for collection when expected.
“We understand fully patients’ frustration when that is not the case.
“That is why we are asking patients with a repeat prescription to give us an additional two days’ notification.”