A funny story from work.
It's a quiet afternoon, the surgery collection is done for the day and all the housebound medication is delivered. Then I receive a phone call from a woman, she's asking us to deliver her medication to her home. It's 3pm and our driver has gone home for the day, but apparently she doesn't understand what this means.
I'm standing with the phone to my ear as she barks her orders to me.
"This isn't acceptable, you'll need to find someone to do the delivery. I need my sleeping tablets"
Yes, and pigs fly, is what I wanted to say.
"I'm half blind, and won't be able to leave my house."
No, you're not. We have seen you in here before, in fact when you came to pick up last week's supply of Diazepam. We also spotted you at the local Spar, buying cigarettes and looking rather not blind. I know a blind person when I see one. This epic battle of wits continues for another 3 minutes before she finally hangs up.
Little did I know, this would not be the end of it.
The phone rings again, 30 minutes later.
"Hello, this is Jacob, from Boots customer services."
"Hello...Jacob" I greet him back, cautiously. This is Boots we're talking about, and Boots customer services too.
"I've just had a customer who is blind on the phone asking why you haven't delivered her medication to her home. Can I ask why you've done this?"
They call their patients "customers." This is a thing at Boots. I'm scratching my head, wondering why the hell we're getting a call from this guy. Jacob, from Boots, a company that has nothing to do with our independently owned pharmacy.
Then it dawned on me. That woman somehow thinks Boots could persuade/order us to do what she wants. Also, she's still telling porkies.
This gets better. Another 15 minutes later, the local Boots calls, wanting to know what we're up to. It looks like they want to override what we're doing, presumably to attract a new patient customer. These are sleeping tablets. Diazepam. Valium. A powerful benzodiazepine, prescription only. You cannot just order another Rx and supply her with more, not when she has another ongoing Rx. This is something I need to explain to him. You know what the most frightening thing is? The other person on the phone is a Pharmacist too.
Actually, the most frightening thing might be when this patient finally appears. She has the "too many packs of Marlboro in a lifetime" look, not to mention the look of someone ready to end my life. I stand my ground "We only deliver to housebound patients."
The epic stand stand off ends with her leaving.
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