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Having never worked in the system, it all became clear today on my return to the surgery. My first visit was too the chemist to collect the prescription where they had a large polythene bag waiting for me.
Then to the surgery to see the nurse, I thought I would be handing the dressings over to the nurse who would keep them for her stock. She then explained about the 'low stock' situation and that if everybody who visited the surgery used the same amount of dressings I had been issued with and they had to store them, then they would need a few shipping containers in the car park to hold the stock for a week. It is a better situation for the chemist to hold our stocks.
So I must hold my hands up and say sorry in thinking that something underhand was going on within the NHS.
When I was leaving the nurse said "dont forget to take your bag of dressings .. we have nowhere to store them and dont forget to bring them back next week "