Last Friday I got a prescription for antibiotics from the pharmacy and the bottle was supposed to contain 14 tablets, enough for 1 week. Today I have 2 tablets left which means the bottle only contained 12 tablets. It never occurred to me to count the tablets but I darned well should have. At a cost of almost $2 per pill, I've been shortchanged almost $4. I wonder how often this happens and I also wonder what the consequences are to people's health when mistakes, either on purpose or by accident, happen.
I'm torn about contacting the pharmacy and telling them of their error. After all, it's only 2 pills. But what if that extra day of not taking the antibiotic meant my infection would flare up again. It hasn't completely cleared up yet so 2 little antibiotic tablets might mean a lot.
Here in Canada, we seniors only pay $100 per year plus the dispensing fee of $6.11 for each prescription drug so we might not feel a financial loss when the pharmacy shorts us. But just think what those occasional shortages add up to in dollars saved for the pharmacy each year.
We should take a few minutes and count those tiny pills when we have a prescription filled and if we're shorted too often then it's time to find a new pharmacy.
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