'Makes me very angry': Winnipegger frustrated after pharmacy system failure

A Winnipeg woman says a system crash at Shoppers Drug Mart has left her without her pain medication for two days.

Pamella Hopkins says on Sunday she was told she wouldn't be able to get her prescription for a controlled painkiller because of a widespread computer system crash. Now she has been scrambling to find another way to get her prescription.

"I’m sure there are other people that it’s just so much worse for them,” she said. “But this is how it affects me personally. And it just makes me very angry."

Hopkins is trying to get her prescription filled elsewhere.

"I’m just a little confused as to why it’s already day two and still nothing," she said.

Pharmacies can call to get prescriptions filled elsewhere but Tim Smith, the pharmacy practice advisor with Pharmacists Manitoba, says controlled substances like the ones Hopkins needs are a different story.

"Unfortunately, Manitoba remains the only province in the country where pharmacists can't send a transfer to another pharmacy, which would be something that would be very helpful in a situation like this,” Smith said.

"This is a really challenging situation when the systems that we have built up to help us fail.”

Loblaw, the parent company of Shoppers Drug Mart, says some of its pharmacies are unable to fulfill prescriptions because of intermittent system issues.

"We are actively working to resolve the issue and some of our stores are already back online. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused,” Loblaw says in a statement to CTV News. "To be clear, this is a technical issue and there is no systems or data breach."

CTV News has asked how many Winnipeg locations were affected and when the system will be fully restored.