# Why are pharmacies so slow? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 20, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pharmacies-so-slow/547394 "2010-07-20T21:34:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pharmacies-so-slow/547394/81 "2010-08-15T03:09:17Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > So what’s the reason for this federal law? All the fear about “controlled substances”? Over here, that would violate grossly patient’s right and citzen’s right for privacy. > As for refills while traveling: you either take enough to last, or you take a recipe with you from your doctor if you are travelling No, it’s mainly to prevent confusion. Don’t forget that, unlike the wholesale bottles of pills behind the counter in the pharmacy itself, the bottles of pills given to the patients are usually identical brown containers. Without the label information you can’t tell which pill is which, nor which is my prescription and which is my wife’s. [Target](http://sites.target.com/site/en/health/page.jsp?contentId=PRD03-003977), for one, has started to give different colored rings for prescriptions for different family members, to make them more distinguishable. But otherwise the bottles are still identical, aside from the printed label. See the link. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pharmacies-so-slow/547394/82 "2010-08-15T09:25:30Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > > [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > > > I’ve never spent longer than 5 minutes in a pharmacy in the UK picking up a prescription. I go in, hand over the script, they ask me to read the back of the script to make sure I’m not exempt from paying and sign it, hand it back, the clerk passes it to the pharmacist who fills it, I pay the prescription fee and leave. 20 minutes, never mind 45 minutes, to fill a prescription is insane. > > Another Brit concurring with this. Maybe ten minutes if there’s a queue of old ladies. I find it differs greatly according to which pharmacy you choose. The large one in my local shopping ‘mall’ is one I rarely use as the wait is often 30-90 minutes even when the place is empty. The one I almost always use is in the same building as my GP’s surgery - there are no other businesses there, it is a dedicated facility. They are generally very fast despite a queue. It is a very small shop. The slowest one was the hospital pharmacy I was in a couple of weeks ago. Went to the hospital on a referral for some tests, which went very quickly then had to wait an age in the pharmacy for a few pills and a piece of equipment they didn’t have, had to get it from my usual pharmacy. On Friday I had a particularly bad asthma attack at work (Induced by cigarette smoke in a non-smoking environment :mad::mad:) Inhaler was empty, had to go to a pharmacy and get one without prescription and couldn’t actually say what I wanted, just waved the empty one at them and they gave me a new one. Had to wait in the pharmacy for 40 mins until I could breathe sufficiently to pay them and give my details as they shouldn’t have issued it without a prescription. Couldn’t continue at work and went straight to the GP’s to see if the test results were through and arrange an appointment for renewed medication. I was still suffering from the attack which increased in severity triggered by something in reception, was dragged into a surgery and they recalled the doctor who had just left to go on his rounds. He gave me some medication from his bag, ordered five more prescriptions (done through a computer and printed so no more deciphering the legendary doctor’s hieroglyphics) sent them to the pharmacy and the pharmacist brought a whole sackfull of meds and devices less than five minutes later. I can, but rarely do, call the doctor for a repeat, the pharmacy gets the prescription on the day of issue and will deliver it to me (FOC) the same morning. When in Sweden in the 60’s and 70’s I found the Swedish pharmacies to be the very essence of efficiency and speed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pharmacies-so-slow/547394.md?page=4)