A number of patients have recently fed back to the Trust that they have had some difficulties after being given a hospital prescription late in the afternoon, and particularly on Fridays.
Routine outpatient prescriptions are generated on a prescription with both the trust and with Lloyds pharmacy logos printed on them. These can only be fulfilled at the hospital Lloyds pharmacies at either Furness General Hospital, Westmorland General Hospital or Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
The opening times for each of these pharmacies is as follows.
RLI
- Monday – Friday 9am to 5.30pm
- Saturday and Sunday – closed
WGH
- Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm
- Saturday and Sunday – closed
FGH
- Monday – Friday 9am to 5.30pm
- Saturday and Sunday – closed
Bank Holiday opening hours may differ.
At lunch time the responsible pharmacist on each site will take a 20 minutes break and the Lloyds Pharmacy team will advise patients of the waiting time for dispensing.
Trust action taken
The Trust has written to all teams who may dispense outpatient prescriptions to warn patients that routine outpatient prescriptions cannot be fulfilled at community pharmacies.
In addition where an out-patient appointment continues past the time that the on-site Lloyds Pharmacy opens, and patients require access to urgent medicines, the prescribing clinician has been asked to write the prescription on a FP10HP Community pharmacy prescription, and advise the patient to take to a community pharmacy of their choice. If this takes place the prescription cannot be fulfilled at the on-site Lloyds pharmacy and must be taken to a community pharmacy.
We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that there are no further actions we need to take.
We apologise for any issues patients may have had.
Kam Mom
Chief Pharmacist