Chemists
Why is Saturday such a difficult day for pharmacists?
Just driven half way around South Shields looking for a chemist shop that is open to dispense prescriptions on a Saturday morning, there must be half a dozen within walking distance but they were all closed. I did find one, but in this day and age it beggars belief that they are not open when their customers need them.
It would be a very strange sort of world if we had to check the Shields Gazette on a Friday to find a “duty butcher”.
If there are any pharmacists reading this I’d appreciate your thoughts.
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[...] Original post by curly [...]
Curly’s Corner Shop
October 4, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I am not a pharmacist but “worked in the business”.You need to be at the shop early on Saturdays, they all receive deliveries from their wholesale supplier. Delivery vans start getting on the road by 6.30am and deliveries start at 8.30am. First vans back to their depot start arriving shortly after 9.30am. Shops do not stay open very long – there are few prescribing doctors working on Saturdays and therefore few, if any, customers for the pharmacy; it does not make economic sense for shops to stay open if there are no customers. However, this will slowly change as doctors respond to government pressure to be available to patients for longer hours. This in turn, will be reflected in longer hours for the pharmacist.
Trigger
October 5, 2008 at 12:35 am
But surely Trigger there are many GPs who prescribe late on Friday afternoons or early evening? Many of their customers will surely wait until the following day to have their prescriptions dispensed.
curly
October 5, 2008 at 1:32 am
Why? You see the doctor; doctor prescribes; you leave the surgery; in almost all cases there is a pharmacy next door; why pass the pharmacy door when you can walk in and pick up the potion?
Trigger
October 6, 2008 at 12:46 am