Frustrated by heartless pharmacists

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Allow me to to register my disgust with the attitude of some of the health-care workers of the Government in this day and age. Being asthmatic, I had an appointment at the National Chest Hospital on Tuesday, January 24. After being seen by a very courteous doctor, I proceeded to the pharmacy to collect even one of the medications prescribed to me.

When I arrived at the designated spot, a few patients had handed in their prescription, but about 40 of us had to sit and wait almost an hour before the window was opened for anyone to attend to us.

Finally, after an hour or so, the window was opened and those waiting were served. Those like myself who had been waiting were finally allowed to hand in our prescriptions.

What irked some of us was that soon after, an elderly gentleman who was being nebulised got his prescription during his break from the machine. He had decided to come to the pharmacy and was totally disrespected by a pharmacist.

It appeared as if he did not know the 'order' of the pharmacy, so he stood at the door to the dispensary and dared to knock. When no one answered, he stood there for about half an hour before a male pharmacist came through a side door.

The gentleman was promptly asked, "What are you doing here? Don't you know you cannot stand here?" And despite him trying to explain his situation, the arrogant pharmacist would not listen. A young woman tried to explain on the elderly man's behalf, but to no avail.

Unhelpful staff

I left him there wanting to go back to be nebulised but needing to hand in his prescription. However, because of the mentality of the pharmacy staff, he could not do so quickly.

It pains my heart because the elderly man could have been my dad, and we are all going to get old one day.

I know pharmacists are stressed and so on, but when you are in certain fields of work, you must be compassionate and not always stand on rules. In fact, I think the rules are stupid and frustrate patients.

Why do we have to wait two hours to even have our prescription looked at? Why not implement some form of ticketing system?

I was totally disgusted by the experience on Tuesday, and specifically the treatment meted out to that elderly gentleman

- S.R., chloe_dier@yahoo.com