Medical Card Withdrawn

Just something I have noticed recently that really highlights the welfare society we live in and the 'grab-all' attitude of our citizens. These citizens are the same ones that cry foul at every single whisper of a rumour about corruption.....

A patient comes into the pharmacy. They have had their medical card recently withdrawn and are now a private patient and have to pay for everything (up to a max of €100 of course). But now that they have to pay they will tell you that "I don't really need the first two" or "It's only the fourth one that I actually take". Basically what they are saying is that when someone else (ie the taxpayer) is paying for their drugs they are more than happy to get everything and anything, even if they don't need it. And if they don't take it they will stockpile it in a cupboard.

It never seems to occur to them that the money that they are now 'saving' by only taking the drugs they really need the state has effectively been wasting for the last number of years. But hey, since it wasn't their money why give a shit? And lets not even get started on the future health problems, and costs, that they may be open to by not taking their prescribed drugs.....

Bad reception... or deafness

Quick rant about mobile phones. Why do people talk louder into a mobile phone than they normally talk. In olden times if you wanted to talk to someone far away you had to shout at them, the phone means this isn't necessary. Nevertheless people seem to like to share their conversation with anyone within shouting distance. It especially bugs me when these people talk at a normal level when talking into a landline.

And while I'm on the subject of mobile phones, it occasionally happens that you get a bad connection, or one of the parties has bad reception or even is deaf. In these cases, how long is it polite to shout "HELLO. HELLO. HELLO?" into the phone? How often to you see these goons walking around shouting nothing but "HELLO" into the phone at increasing decibel levels for up to a minute.

Two hellos should be a limit. If you can't hear them at that stage hang the fuck up and try again later.

Re-dials

Have you ever answered a phone call only to find that the caller has called the wrong number. The apologise, you say that's ok and hang up. Life goes on.



Then 10 seconds later your phone rings again and it's the same muppet. They just hit re-dial.



What kind of a tool are we dealing with here? If it's the wrong number the first time you call it and you call it again it's still going to be the wrong fucking number.



Look at it this way, if they called to a house and knocked at the door only to find it was the wrong house would they walk out the drive, turn around and walk back up to the same door and knock again expecting to find a different family inside this time? Muppets....

Funny stuff

Not a rant here (for once). I recommend that Richard Pryor. What a man. Look him up on youtube if you get the chance. Comedy genius.

Kudos also to "The Inbetweeners". The British comedy on More4. Best comedy from this side of the Atlantic since "The Royale Family". Dead funny.

Some of the progammes on the Channel 4 family are ridiculous. Does anybody really care about these freaks of nature. Most of them are disturbing tv. "Addicted to Boob Jobs" for instance. Last night saw a classic of the genre: "Chopped Off: The man who lost his penis".

Next week is will probably be something even worse: "Can't Smell: The man with the blocked nose"?

Anything seen this week on Channel 4 will soon appear on TV3 anyhow, so don't fret if you missed it.

Phone calls

17:55... 5 minutes to closing time. starting to wrap up. Order sent. Verifying done. Cleaning done.

Beep beep

Phone rings. You think "bollix"

But your duty of care is to the patient so against your better judgement you pick it up and answer, "Hello xxxxx Pharmacy". And if you are really unlucky you will hear the most pointless question of all:

"Are ye still open?"

Are they for real? Obviously we are still open. Who the fuck is answering the phone if we are not open? How tempting is it to hang up at this point?

Early customers

While I think of it, is there anything more disheartening in the world than walking to work, turning the corner and seeing someone waiting outside the pharmacy. Sucks the life out of the day. Especially when they stand behind you as you unlock and open the shutters and then march in the door behind you before you even have the alarm turned off or lights turned on.

Seriously, back off, give me a minute to turn shit on or even scratch myself before you start ruining my day. I could possibly excuse or understand this if it was a serious emergency ie an epileptic mid-seizure looking for a diazepam enema. That's fine. I appreciate the gravity of that particular situation.

But someone looking for the 5 diovan tablets that we had to owe them from yesterday, that they don't even need until 3 weeks time anyway... get off my back buddy.

Public Stupidity

I was hoping to kick this blog off with a chesnut of a story that would fully illustrate the absolute stupidity of the public. One of these incidents that makes me frustrated that their vote is worth the same as mine. Sure enough, today one of these dopes walked into the pharmacy and fulfilled the stereotype.....

Woman walks in with daughter. Apparently the daughter has asthma. Luckily though its not too bad. Unfortunately the "hot weather" has made her feel much worse. The mother wanted to know would it be ok to use her daughter's unopened Ventolin inhaler. She was worried because the expiry date was November 2009 (let's not forget it's now June 2009)...

What a waste of my time. And oxygen. Does this woman walk into a shop with a bottle of milk that expires next week and ask if it's ok to drink this week? Fuckin' hell it's annoying.