Biaxsig lady

Elderly people just need to calm down sometimes. An old ethnic lady comes in with a script from for Biaxsig 150mg. 

After I dispense it, she takes out an old packaging of Biaxsig 300mg from her bag and starts comparing to the Biaxsig 150mg. She looks at it, glares at me and throws the packet of 150mg back at me and starts yelling in her language. 

I got some help from other customers who spoke her language and it turns out she wants the 300mg but she thinks I gave her the wrong one. Contacted the doctor (who tells me he thinks she's a nutcase anyway) to change it to 300mg. She's still yelling, complaining about me until someone told her it's because the doctor wrote 150mg then she stopped and started to complain about the doctor. 

Ok fine so problem solved. I dispense the 300mg. She opens the box. The printing on the blister pack is now black instead of blue which she got before. She yells again. Oh dear. She asks me why is it black and not blue. I said - the company changed their packaging which I have no control over. But the words and milligrams are all the same. In the end she didn't want it because she thinks its different. 


I should've got a texta and coloured it first ...

Man thinks Advantan Cream should be OTC

Man: Do you have Advantan Cream?

Me: Yes we do.

Man: Can you please tell me the prices? I know it comes in 2 sizes.

Me: No actually it only comes in one size and that's 15g. $20 for the 15g

Man: Oh I see I see. I need to the doctor for a prescription first right?

Me: That's right. It's a prescription only medicine so you need to the see the doctor first.

Man: Yeh I don't know why they have to do that. It's just a cream nothing special, why do they have to make it difficult. Anyone can you use it.

Me: Actually no, the reason why it's on prescription is because NOT everyone can use it. Depends on the area you're using it on, the severity of the problem, the age of the patient ..... It's a potent cream - that's the reason you can't buy it just like that.

Man: Oh reallyy.......... but I know how to use it. 

Me: Just go see the doctor.

Mr Know It All. First you thought the cream comes in 2 different sizes and then secondly you think it shouldn't be on prescription because you know how to use it. 

Elderly man available

I have this elderly regular customer who used to come in from time to time but I haven't seen him for ages. He came in today to ask for a Safetynet printout of him and his wife's medications. I look on the system and he hasn't actually been in our pharmacy since January 2014.

Upon talking to him, he tells me his wife passed away in February. So it's been a while. Offered my condolences and asked how he's coping and he seems to be happy

Him: Yeh I'm fine. I've put on so much weight. If you know any young, rich widows, let them know I'm available!! 

Me: haha ok ok I'll keep an eye out for you! 

Hahahha what a funny bloke!  


He's about 85, Caucasian, has his own car and house, and knows how to cook. 

Apply within if interested. 

Conjunctivitis lady wants reassurance about Systane

A lady comes into the pharmacy today wanting advice on eye drops. She's holding a packet of Systane eye drops and asked me if it was suitable for her. I asked her what symptoms does she have?

She: There's a lot of discharge, and its all sticky. Its kind of red and a bit uncomfortable.
Me: Its sounds like conjunctivitis to me. Systane eye drops is only for dry eyes. For eye infections, I can give you an antibiotic eye drop which would be more suitable for you.
She: But my friend used Systane and it worked for her.
Me: Well maybe your friend only had dry eyes so that's why she used Systane. You have an eye infection so you will need a different eye drop.
She: Can you show me?
Me shows her Chlorsig eye drops: This is Chlorsig eye drops, which will help with your eye infection.


Holds the Chlorsig and scrutinizes over it for a long time.

She: Oh I don't know about this one, my friend used Systane. You don't think Systane will help me?
Me: No. They are for 2 different things. Your friend needs Systane because she has dry eyes. You need Chlorsig because you have conjunctivitis. You don't have the same problem. But of course, if you don't believe me, you can feel free to take the Systane - that's up to you.
She: So you think Chlorsig will help me?

This went on and on in circles. Eventually she got the Chlorsig, but a 2 minute job turned out to be 10min because she wanted me to say that Systane is good for her. Why bother asking a pharmacist for advice if you don't take it? Some people just trust their friend more......

VIPs of VIPs reg24 scripts

There's a regular customer of ours that can't no for an answer and expects everything to go her way. 

She came in the other day to fill on her scripts as she was going overseas for 3 months. She's on Safetynet meaning she gets her meds for free. All she had in her hand were a bunch of old repeats. Now Medicare doesn't allow any early supplies  to be covered under Safetynet if supplies are less than 21 days. So the key way to get around this is to get a new script from the doctor and tell him to endorse Reg24 on it. What was an easy straightforward process became so complicated. 

I write a note to the doctor explaining to him what to do. Patient comes back with just 2 scripts. I have no idea why the doctor didn't write scripts for all her meds. Patient gets cranky at me for making her go back to the doctor. It's not even my fault. I wrote everything out but don't understand why doctor didn't follow it. 

Then she wants discounts of everything she buys in the store. She doesn't want to pay the same price as anyone else even if it's heavily discounted. 

Then she wants an owing on Codeine Linctus, which I can't give without a script especially for an S8 med. She gets cranky at me again and says I never help her out. She just doesn't understand some things I can't do because they are illegal. 

Sigh* then she curses me the lowest of lows in her language and gets the scripts from the doctors anyway, which she could've done in the first place. 

Fist punch

Patience is something a lot of people don't have. Customers should realize a pharmacy does not guarantee a 3 minute order like Maccas. If you come at a quiet time, or if you just have a simple script, yes it can be ready in less than a minute. But come at a busy time, and there's about 4 people ahead of you already, then no - you can wait 5, 10, 15 min.

Everyday is a hectic day. We as pharmacists have to deal with dispensing scripts, deal with customers with over-the-counter queries, answer phone queries from doctors, hospitals, customers etc. We try our best to accommodate everyone but some people are just so not understanding and they think they are above everyone else.

Take this customer who came in today almost getting into a punch-up with one of the pharmacists.

I was already dispensing other scripts at the time in the dispensary. This man waiting for a script decides 5 minutes was too much of a wait for him, so he decides to walk up to one of our male pharmacist who was helping another customer in the cold&flu section and demanded him to dispense his script immediately.

The pharmacist politely answers him and says its in line, and it will be processed when we get to it.

Customer: No you go do it now!
Pharmacist: Excuse me? It is in line. We will call you when its ready. You need to wait for it to be processed.
C: I got no time! I want you to go and dispense it now.
P (got pretty pissed off by now): You know what? If you don't want to wait, I'll give you your script back. (proceeds back to the dispensary to hand over the script)

Customer decides to snatch the script from the pharmacist's hands by grabbing his arm. Pharmacist felt threatened so he told him to back off. Customer decides to punch him coz he got angry.

Lots of shouting and almost got physical. The girls were scared. The customer was eventually dragged out by other big macho guys in the pharmacy, and the last I heard was him kicking his legs and screaming "let me go let me go".......


People should just calm down! Why get so angry and chucking a tantrum over a prescription for? No need to get physical.

Abortion Pill

A lady came into the pharmacy with a hospital prescription for Mifepristone aka the abortion pill. 

Now its not something that's very easily accessible by any pharmacy or any doctor. Go through training and application to actually prescribe and supply it. So what I don't understand is why the hospital just gave the prescription to the patient and told them to get it from 'any pharmacy'. For all I know, I'm not even sure if the doctor is authorized to prescribe such item.  

Anyway, patient insisted me to call the hospital pharmacy. So I called the hospital switchboard asking for the outpatient pharmacy, this is her response:

Her: errrr, no because we don't even have an outpatient pharmacy here. 
Me: Is there a pharmacy outside your hospital?
Her: errr no?
Me: Is there another hospital nearby that you direct me to that actually has an outpatient pharmacy?
Her: Well you try XX or XX /hangs up on me....

You can so tell she was rolling her eyes on the other side of the phone. She hangs up on me before I could reply. 

So I tell the patient and I ended up calling XX or XX.... they either didn't have an outpatient pharmacy or they don't supply it. *sigh* 

Patient tells me to call the clinic she was in at the hospital. 

Called the first hospital with the b*tch receptionist.

Me: Can you please patch me through to the XXXX clinic?
Her: Its closed.
Me: What time does it open?
Her: Its open from 7.30 to ...

Me quickly slams the phone in her face. 

That felt good. Anyway, after numerous phone calls, couldn't get it for her. So I told her to see her GP for a referral to an abortion clinic and they should be able to supply it to her directly there. 

More information here: http://www.tga.gov.au/hp/information-medicines-mifepristone-gymiso.htm#.U9MLcOOSz74