Owed items on prescriptions and prescription reconciliation

The request was partially successful.

Dear Boots UK Limited,

1) Please provide all recorded information, including policies, procedures and guidance etc., outlining the steps a member of staff should take when an item on a patients prescription cannot be fulfilled and a patient is owed a prescription item in part or in full.

2) Please provide all recorded information about the circumstances in which staff would not provide a patient with a paper record to evidence that they are owed prescription medication and what would happen in those circumstances to provide the patient with the medication they are owed.

3) Please provide all recorded information about prescription reconciliation procedures and systems.

4) Please provide all recorded information about steps, timescales etc., where Boots have to chase a prescription from a GP in order to reconcile the prescription on your systems. To help locate information I refer here to a situation, for example, when a GPs surgery faxes through a prescription to Boots and the items are issued, but the original prescription needs to be obtained to reconcile your systems. Please provide all recorded information held about what happens to the patients next prescription if the initial prescription has not been reconciled with your systems and the steps Boots take to minimise inconvenience to the patient.

Yours faithfully,

Diane Lister

Boots Customer Service, Boots UK Limited

Thank you for contacting us. Our team has received your email safely and your customer reference number is 05594806.

We aim to respond to all emails within two working days, but if you need an immediate response please visit the help pages on Boots.com by [1]clicking here. Our telephone numbers are below in case you need to call us.

For Advantage Card related queries: 0345 124 4545
For Boots.com related queries: 0345 609 0055
For all other queries: 0345 070 8090
Minicom: 0345 070 8091

Please remember to quote your personal customer reference number and note that all contacts are recorded for training and monitoring purposes. Call charges may vary, please refer to your service provider for more information.

Our opening hours are 8.30am - 7.00pm Monday to Friday, 8.45am to 5.00pm Saturday and Sunday and 9.00am - 4.00pm on Bank Holidays.

Many Thanks
Boots Customer Care

If you need further help with your existing email please respond to this
message directly, including your personal customer reference number. For
any other information or query, please visit the help pages or the contact
us page on [2]Boots.com

All contacts are recorded for training and monitoring purposes.

Boots UK Limited, Nottingham NG2 3AA, registered in England and Wales,
company number 928555. Registered VAT number 116300129. Registered
Pharmacy number 1092488.

This e-mail (including any attachments) is confidential. It may be read,
copied and used only by the intended recipient. If you are not the
intended recipient you should not copy it or use it for any purpose or
disclose its contents to any other person. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us and remove it from your system. We
cannot accept liability for any damage you incur as a result of virus
infection.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.boots.com/?fa_category=All
2. http://www.boots.com/

Supt Pharm Office, Boots UK Limited

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Lister

 

Your email requesting information about certain pharmacy policies and
procedures has been passed to this office for reply as the Superintendent
Pharmacist is responsible for the professional service provided in all
Boots UK pharmacies.

 

Taking your requests in order, we can make the following comments:

 

1.       A copy of our Standard Operating Procedure for dealing with owing
and partly dispensed items is attached.

2.       We do not have any recorded information about the circumstances
in which staff would not provide a paper record of owed prescription
medication.

3.       It is not clear what you are requesting relating to prescription
reconciliation procedures and systems. If you are able to provide us with
details about what this query relates to, we may be able to supply you
with appropriate information. 

4.       A copy of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society guidance on Emergency
Supply is attached, which includes information about faxed prescriptions
and the timescale allowed before the prescriber must provide a valid
prescription. Emergency Supply is not an NHS service and, as such, is not
covered by Freedom of Information legislation and we will not be supplying
any internal Company documentation on this service.

We hope that this information is of some assistance but if your query
relates to a specific incident in one of our pharmacies, we would be happy
to investigate and comment on it if you can provide us with appropriate
details.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Margaret Meehan

Superintendent Pharmacist's Office

 

Boots UK

D90E F08, Thane Road, Nottingham NG90 1BS

 

 

Boots UK Limited, Registered 928555, Nottingham NG2 3AA This e-mail
(including any attachments) is confidential. It may be read, copied and
used only by the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient
you should not copy it or use it for any purpose or disclose its contents
to any other person. If you have received this message in error, please
notify us and remove it from your system. We cannot accept liability for
any damage you incur as a result of virus infection.

Dear Boots UK Limited,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Boots UK Limited's handling of my FOI request 'Owed items on prescriptions and prescription reconciliation'.

With regard to question 2 you state: "We do not have any recorded information about the circumstances
in which staff would not provide a paper record of owed prescription medication".

Can you please confirm if this is because when a prescription item is owed to a patient, staff must provide a paper record of owed prescription medication?

With regard to question 3 you have stated: "It is not clear what you are requesting relating to prescription reconciliation procedures and systems. If you are able to provide us with
details about what this query relates to, we may be able to supply you
with appropriate information".

I refer to the procedures I have been told about by Boots pharmacy staff and these are detailed in my FOI at question 4. These prescription reconciliation procedures and systems relate to your IT prescription system and how it reconciles prescriptions in situations where, for example, a prescription has been faxed through from a GP surgery. Boots pharmacy staff are aware of the system and practice I have requested recorded information about, so they may be able to help locate the data.

In relation to question 4 you have stated: "Emergency Supply is not an NHS service and, as such, is not
covered by Freedom of Information legislation and we will not be supplying any internal Company documentation on this service". I have not mentioned the term "Emergency Supply" in my request, nor have I requested recorded data which is outside of the NHS system. I have described a situation which is common practice in relation to the handling of NHS prescriptions in Boots pharmacy. This information is subject to the FOI Act 2000. Therefore, you have not cited a valid exemption under the FOI Act to withhold any recorded data you hold about this practice. Please provide the information requested. Boots pharmacy staff may be able to help locate the data.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/o...

Yours faithfully,

Diane Lister

Boots Customer Service, Boots UK Limited

Thank you for contacting us. Our team has received your email safely and your customer reference number is 05813324.

We aim to respond to all emails within two working days, but if you need an immediate response please visit the help pages on Boots.com by [1]clicking here. Our telephone numbers are below in case you need to call us.

For Advantage Card related queries: 0345 124 4545
For Boots.com related queries: 0345 609 0055
For all other queries: 0345 070 8090
Minicom: 0345 070 8091

Please remember to quote your personal customer reference number and note that all contacts are recorded for training and monitoring purposes. Call charges may vary, please refer to your service provider for more information.

Our opening hours are 8.30am - 7.00pm Monday to Friday, 8.45am to 5.00pm Saturday and Sunday and 9.00am - 4.00pm on Bank Holidays.

Many Thanks
Boots Customer Care

If you need further help with your existing email please respond to this
message directly, including your personal customer reference number. For
any other information or query, please visit the help pages or the contact
us page on [2]Boots.com

All contacts are recorded for training and monitoring purposes.

Boots UK Limited, Nottingham NG2 3AA, registered in England and Wales,
company number 928555. Registered VAT number 116300129. Registered
Pharmacy number 1092488.

This e-mail (including any attachments) is confidential. It may be read,
copied and used only by the intended recipient. If you are not the
intended recipient you should not copy it or use it for any purpose or
disclose its contents to any other person. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us and remove it from your system. We
cannot accept liability for any damage you incur as a result of virus
infection.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.boots.com/?fa_category=All
2. http://www.boots.com/

Louise Wiseman, Boots UK Limited

Dear Ms Lister

 

Your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request has been passed to me for
internal review. 

 

In respect of question 2, we provided a copy of our Standard Operating
Procedure for handling owing and partly dispensed items which shows that
our process is to provide a paper owing docket.   It is difficult to
envisage a situation in which we would not be able to provide a docket,
and should such a situation arise we would expect our staff to handle it
using discretion and common sense.  

 

We remain unclear as to the procedures and systems you are referring to in
question 3 but I note that here, as in question 4, you refer to the faxing
of prescriptions.  This is not common practice in our pharmacies,
particularly with the advent of the NHS Electronic Prescribing Service,
and is likely to occur only in the context of the emergency supply of
medication.  Emergency Supply is not an NHS service so any applicable
internal procedures are outside the scope of the Freedom of Information
Act.  We did, however, provide you with a copy of the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society guidance on Emergency Supply in the hope that it might be
helpful.   

 

If you are able to provide us with clear details of a specific procedure
in relation to our NHS activities, we will be pleased to revisit question
3 under FOIA.   Alternatively, if the question relates to an individual
situation you have experienced in one of our stores and you would like to
make a complaint, our Customer Service Team will be able to assist and can
be contacted via the ‘Contact Us’ page of our website or on 0345 070
8090. 

 

In the absence of further clarification about question 3, I am satisfied
that Boots has responded to your request as fully as we are able and that
there is no further relevant information to which you are entitled under
FOIA.   

 

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may wish to contact the
Information Commissioner’s Officer via its website at
[1]https://ico.org.uk/ or by telephone on 0303 123 1113.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Louise Wiseman

Data Protection and Privacy Officer

 

Walgreens Boots Alliance - Boots UK and Republic of Ireland

1 Thane Road, Nottingham, NG90 1BS, UK

 

Member of Walgreens Boots Alliance

 

Boots UK Limited, Registered 928555, Nottingham NG2 3AA This e-mail
(including any attachments) is confidential. It may be read, copied and
used only by the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient
you should not copy it or use it for any purpose or disclose its contents
to any other person. If you have received this message in error, please
notify us and remove it from your system. We cannot accept liability for
any damage you incur as a result of virus infection.

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/