Elizabeth S

When I arrived and informed the pharmacist that 111 had sent an emergency referral for me to provide bridging medication until I could renew my prescription, the pharmacist confirmed receipt of the referral but told me if I didn’t have the NHS app she couldn’t help me. It transpired that their records system wasn’t working and she couldn’t look me up, but didn’t want to tell me that, so she was going to turn me away (she also tried the ‘we may not have your medication’ line but stopped when I advised her I had worked in NHS and knew the protocol). She then spent 2 hours just to dispense 4 capsules and charge me the full £9.60. She was a very young girl and presumed that everyone should ‘have the app’ to make her life easier / tried to cover up the records system failure. Her manager (I hope she’s reading this) set her staff up to fail and knowingly operated a pharmacy without a functioning system (apparently they only like to service people registered with them).

I can think of two instances of discrimination without trying - ageism by assuming I’d have an app or smart phone; and failure to make reasonable accommodation for a disability. But I don’t actually blame the young pharmacist - I blame her manager who’s more interested in takings than GDPR, acceptable records management or even customer care. Note to NHS - ICS is not working very well here.