Bow Medical Practice has asked patients not to call its dispensary to ask whether prescriptions are ready for collection so that pharmacists can work through the current backlog.

The surgery has temporarily suspended phone calls to the dispensary but said it will contact housebound patients to ensure they have adequate medication supplies during this period. It asks patients with medication-related questions to visit the dispensary instead.

The dispensary used to message patients manually to let them know their prescription was ready. However, it said it struggled to do so during busy times, meaning many patients called for updates, reducing the time pharmacists spent preparing prescriptions.

The new system includes an automated message service which the dispensary hopes will free up pharmacists’ time to prepare prescriptions.