Concern

MagicDaz said:

Can i ask as anyone ever been given a single unsealed pre filled insulin pen from a pharmacist?

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No as never used pens.

Sounds to me as if either your prescription has been written wrongly or the pharmacist has read it wrongly. What is your usual prescription for?
Oh and if it's unsealedthen give it back on hygine grounds.

I wouldn't use anything if it came unsealed, especially an insulin pen. Take it back to the pharmacy and ask for a sealed pack.

MagicDaz said:

Can i ask as anyone ever been given a single unsealed pre filled insulin pen from a pharmacist?

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Hi

Normally insulin pens come in sealed cardboard packs of 5 but if a GP has issued a prescription for just 1 pen, then the pharmacist will open up a pack and just take 1 pen out. If you are worried though just have a word with the pharmacist...

MagicDaz said:

I am at the moment having talks with my GP and surgery. Its not right my prescription states x2 boxes of 5 pre-filled pens now i have been on isulin since i was diagnosed at 9 i am now 35, this is the first time i have seen this i reckon its a rule breaker. I remember when insulin bottles came in a box and had a little orange cap on as a seal. Also the syringes came in a sealed wrapper. This pharmacist should not have dispensed the item like he did. I did make a song and dance about it in the pharmacy and making myself heard by mentioning that my insulin could be contaminated, This is in a busy town centre well known Super store.

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Having talks with GP at 10.15 pm? If the pharmacist has made a mistake then they have to report it as a dispensing error. What I don't get is why you couldn't tell the difference between 1 pen and 2 boxes of pens.
Insulin still comes in vials. In my day syringes came in glass and stored in industrial spirit.

You can tell if a pre-filled pen has been might have opened before first use.

An unopened pen (the cap hasn't been removed) with be tight fitting, once you take the cap off, you can put it back on in the same way, they will be a little cap between the cap and the body of the pen...

Another indicator is, if the cap slip off easy it's been taken off before, as they are quite stiff to pull off the first time.

MagicDaz said:

I am at the moment having talks with my GP and surgery. Its not right my prescription states x2 boxes of 5 pre-filled pens

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If your prescription states 'x2 boxes of 5 pre-filled pens' then that is what should be dispensed, personally I wouldn't have left the pharmacy until they give me my supplies, occasionally I have taken a prescription elsewhere when a pharmacy doesn't have everything I need or a long delay is possible.

I have been given a singel pen before without a box, as they did not have all of it in stock and I couldn't wait till they had it in stock as I'd run out. I didn't see the harm in it, although can understand why you'd be worried. Hope you get it sorted.

If they didn't have enough for your complete prescription, you should have been told so you could go elsewhere if you chose to.

The fact that they gave you a single unwrapped pen means that they are opening batches and dispensing them singly. Sorry, but with all the posters about how to dispose responsibly of your sharps etc., I think it's time your pharmacy acted responsibly and stopped opening batches of pens and handing them out singly.

It's very difficult if you need that medication, to refuse the single pen to keep you going, but you really shouldn't be put in that position. If something had been wrong with the pen, the whole responsibility would be placed on yourself ... because you accepted it, not on the pharmacy for offering it.

I wouldn't use that pharmacy again.

I sometimes have used a nearby pharmacy to get my meds and I'm horrifed at the counter staff's lack of basic education never mind medical education. My surname name begins with F and 3 times I've stood and watched the girls in white uniforms and intellectual specs, intelligently looking through the box marked G only to come back and tell me, not that they couldn't find my prescription, but that it simply wasn't ready. Twice I stood there and told the girl my name and watched her yet again go back to the box marked with a G to look for a surname beginning with F. The final time I had to write the letter F on a piece of paper and point to the damned box myself! :shock:

Needless to say I now go to ASDA or TESCO because the staff seem to have their wits about them in the large supermarket pharmacies.

All precriptions should come in a sealed package or sealed box. I would advise you to take the pen back then ask your doctor to give you a repeat precription for a sealed box os 5 pens instead.Any drug which is opened and unsealed should not be dispensed and your pharmasist is at fault there.

A pharmacist can dispense just a single pen if that's what is written on the script and if you believe they messed up then why not go back and ask to see the prescription they keep them for a certain amount of time before sending them off to the pct to claim the money back.

I've had just 1 cartridge on insulin prescribed for me and when it was dispensed at my pharmacy, that was what I received.

I have a feeling that what has happened for MagicDaz is that the GP's type written presription has been mis interpreted by the pharmacy to mean something different. This can happen quite a lot as GPs use a database and a printer to issue prescriptions instead of hand writing them.

I receive repeat prescriptions in sealed boxes of 5 pens. I was advised by my Diabetic Clinic to order a repeat prescription when there were two unused pens still remaining in case one of the pens failed and I would only be left with one spare pen which could also fail. I have followed that procedure for the past three years since diagnosis.