Boots Pharmacy Rant

soolin

princessleah_ wrote: »

I wonder whether this is nationwide as I popped into Boots yesterday & bought 1 pack of night nurse, 1 pack of day nurse, 1 pack of lemsip cold & flu, 1 boots decongestant tablets, 1 pack of sinus relief, paracetamol & Ibruprofen & nobody questioned it. (Im not a hypochondriac OH has man flu & I just wanted to shut him up so bought everything I could find!)

Then your Boots if reported to the local PCT who in turn report further is likely to have their license suspended.

I was on a pharmaceutical society board for a while and this would be enough to shut the pharmacy (not the shop of course) down for investigation.

sweetstudent

princessleah_ wrote: »

I wonder whether this is nationwide as I popped into Boots yesterday & bought 1 pack of night nurse, 1 pack of day nurse, 1 pack of lemsip cold & flu, 1 boots decongestant tablets, 1 pack of sinus relief, paracetamol & Ibruprofen & nobody questioned it. (Im not a hypochondriac OH has man flu & I just wanted to shut him up so bought everything I could find!)

Was this all in one transaction or several transactions, because wouldnt the till have stopped the transaction?

dinglebert

flossy_splodge wrote: »

Now THAT's what I call an idea!
Could one just go up to the till two times to solve the problem? In most Boots branches they're probably big enough that you wouldn't have to go to the same assistant.?

Shouldn't work as the pharmacy will be under the control of a single pharmacist and so while therfore it may be a different assistant its still the same phamacist who approves it.
The rule is there for a perfectly good reason and I can't see why anyone would want to get a phamacy into trouble. If you really feel you need more than one then go to another pharmacy and buy it. Then people can be responsible for their own overdoses.

fluffykittens

I must disagree, I think it is a damn right ridiculous ruling. The doc prescribed me some VERY strong pain killers after an Operation, I could have easily took too many and popped my clogs. I however have common sense and act responsibly for my own actions and read the labels and only take the prescribed dose.

Should the pharmacy not have given me two weeks supply of very strong pain killers, should I have had to go in every day with an elephant foot to collect new ones?

If people buy drugs and overdose due to not paying attention to the stated doses, the only people to blame is them, I can not understand how it could be the pharmasists.

What is happening to this country when we are allowed to blame everyone else for our own stupidity and those less stupid are treated like fools.

dinglebert

Because thats the reality of the world we now live in. People sue and in particular people like to sue Health Organisations. We now have firms of solicitors whose sole aim in live is to sue on our behalves at mistakes make by Health Organisations. Personally I feel its a dreadful state of affairs. However the NHS does make errors and in many respects have never really taken ownership of these. The fact is that when you are admitted to a hospital that over 60% of these admissions end up suffering a forseeable medical error which adversly affects them. Things like hospital acquired infections are not side effects of being in hospital but are errors in proceedures and methods and are avoidable. Have a look at the work around national programmes such as Safer Clinical Systems are are attempting to move this on to make it safer for us all.

feelinggood_2

fluffykittens wrote: »

If people buy drugs and overdose due to not paying attention to the stated doses, the only people to blame is them, I can not understand how it could be the pharmasists.

What is happening to this country when we are allowed to blame everyone else for our own stupidity and those less stupid are treated like fools.

It isn't about stupidity, or not reading doses. I think it is there to stop impulsive overdoses, which is often a symptom of severe mental health problems. I have no problem with the rule, if it saves a life, that is a good thing. It isn't exactly a big inconvenience to people.

soolin

fluffykittens wrote: »

I must disagree, I think it is a damn right ridiculous ruling. The doc prescribed me some VERY strong pain killers after an Operation, I could have easily took too many and popped my clogs. I however have common sense and act responsibly for my own actions and read the labels and only take the prescribed dose.

Should the pharmacy not have given me two weeks supply of very strong pain killers, should I have had to go in every day with an elephant foot to collect new ones?

If people buy drugs and overdose due to not paying attention to the stated doses, the only people to blame is them, I can not understand how it could be the pharmasists.

What is happening to this country when we are allowed to blame everyone else for our own stupidity and those less stupid are treated like fools.

Yours were prescription drugs though and prescribed by a registered medical practitioner so the situation is entirely different. You could get many prohibited items on prescription from any pharmacy as long as you can find a registered medical practitioner to write the prescription.

As for the second bit of your post, yes this country has got to the stage where people demand that they are treated like babies at every given step. Sell someone 4 packets of paracetamols and while they languish in hospital waiting for their liver to give out guess who they will blame..I bet it won't be themselves.

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

feelinggood wrote: »

Whilst it might have been an inconvenience to you, these rules are in place for a reason. A lot of overdosing is impulsive, and restrictions on pack size and the number of packs a person can buy, can prevent some impulsive overdosing.

I can actually get 100 paracetamol on prescription at a time off my GP, plus enough prescription only pain killers to probably wipe out 4 households in my street. Does't seem logical really does it ?

soolin

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK wrote: »

I can actually get 100 paracetamol on prescription at a time off my GP, plus enough prescription only pain killers to probably wipe out 4 households in my street. Does't seem logical really does it ?

To me it does as you are not likely to kill yourself on impulse as you took the time to see your GP and work out a pain management plan.

What the laws are tryng to prevent is the impules 'I've had a row with my boyfriend and will take tablets to make him sorry' who then take several packets of parcetetamols and then change their mind and go to A and E a few hours later when boyfriend doesn't take them seriously. Unfortunately paracetamol overdose is a horrible way to go as you can feel absolutely fine but your liver just gives out and you actually die several days later if you don't get help quick enough.

DKLS

Shame it would be a tad expensive to visit the pharmacy I went to on holiday in Egypt.

I asked for paracetamol, the pharmacist shrugged and said I could have morphine syrup!, which he then followed up with an offer for viagra and rohypnol with a big grin and a wink!! I settled for some alternative non mind bending pain killers in the end.

But have to say I liked their attitude, if your an adult and can pay you can have whatever you want.