Early closing dates for staff training
The Surgery is closed for staff training for the afternoon from 1.00pm on Wednesday afternoons in 2018 14th November & 5th December. On these afternoon some non - clinical members of staff may be working. They are unable to deal with patient requests or enquiries. If you have a medical emergency or need medical help please call 111 and you will be directed to the most suitable help.
Why do we need 3 working days to dispense a prescription?
You are one of over 6000 patients that are registered at Denton Village Surgery. The dispensary is very busy, on an average day there are 200 patients coming through the surgery doors seeing doctors and nurses who may be given an acute prescription for us to dispense. At the same time we are processing approximately 500 repeat items per day.
We are not just dispensing prescriptions, there are many other duties we have to do such as, unpacking orders, dealing with queries, processing INR results, making up dosset boxes, organising medication for delivery.
When a repeat slip is handed into the dispensary or an online request is sent there are lots of steps that need to happen before the medication is on the shelf ready for you to collect:
1. Patient records are checked to see if a prescription can be issued
2. Prescription is generated
3. Prescription must be checked and signed by doctor
4. Prescription is labelled
5. Medication is ordered for prescription
6. Medication is dispensed
7. Medication is checked against prescription
8. Items are bagged up ready for collection
These steps have to be followed for each item that is dispensed for each patient. We cannot let an unsigned prescription leave the dispensary as this is a legal requirement.
What can I do to ensure there are no problems getting my prescription?
- Give us at least 3 working days from when you order your medication. Don’t forget we are closed weekends and bank holidays – you can order up to 2 weeks in advance so we have plenty of time to get your medication ready for you.
- If you are going away then make sure you take all medication with you for the duration of your trip.
- Ensure appointments and blood tests are made promptly when requested – so all your medications have enough issues left for us to print a prescription, if not we have to check it with the doctor and this takes time as our doctors are also very busy.
- Don’t let yourself run out of any medications.
- If you need more than a months’ worth of medication please give us the reason e.g. Holiday and we will be able to process this for you, we cannot do more than a month’s medication without a reason.
Thank you for your understanding,
The Dispensary Team, Denton Village Surgery
