chemist refused to sell cough syrup!

Curious_George_2

DS has a bit of a cough this week and on thursday i thought i might get him some new cough mix while i was out as i remembered we had run out of the childrens stuff...

so i nip into the chemist, peer over the counter to the row of cold remedies and decide i want a bottle of childs benylin chesty and the woman refused to sell it too me!
she said they had new guidelines about childrens cough medicine and she would have to check with the pharmacist
well she came back and said they are no longer allowed to sell cough mix for children and i couldnt have a bottle withut a prescription!

is it just me that thinks this is utter madness?
we are now supposed to waste the doctors time for a little cough (not to mention having to sit for an hour in triage with all the really sickly types) and then go back to the chemist (and wait another 20 minutes for them to stick a label on a box)
not to mention the prescription charges! what are they now about £8??
for something that should cost you £2 - £3?

I went next door to Tesco and got one off the shelf :cool:

diable

My surgery states that they won't write out a prescription for medicines available over the counter. Are you sure you spoke to the pharmacist and not a counter nazi?

dianetheartist

something that works really well for coughs--and it sounds a bit odd--rub plenty of vick (or any other brand) vapour rub onto the soles of feet and put socks on.Use at bedtime--it really does work-adults and children alike.Dont know how it works but it does.Loads of my friends and family have tryed it and it does work wonders!

jackomdj

Did you have your son with you & what age is he?

New regulations are that they can only give certain "behind the counter" things to over 6's (think it is 6).

Anyway (& not advising this just saying what I did) I wanted to get some medised, which I had used in the past (boots would not give it to me & told me about the new regulations)....so I said it was for a 7 year old nextdoor in Asda. Funny thing was the box still had the old guidelines so told you what to give for a 2 year old. I have since bought some in Boots doing the same.

Zazen999

If they can't sell cough mix for children; what's it doing on the shelf then?

jackomdj

dianetheartist wrote: »

something that works really well for coughs--and it sounds a bit odd--rub plenty of vick (or any other brand) vapour rub onto the soles of feet and put socks on.Use at bedtime--it really does work-adults and children alike.Dont know how it works but it does.Loads of my friends and family have tryed it and it does work wonders!

Vick - evil stuff! I am OK if I sniff at it but if it comes into contact with my skin I am SO alergic to it...:(

milliebear00001

Cough syrup does !!!!!! all anyway, and is usually full of additives and sugar. Give them honey and lemon - just as good and much better for them.

I thik the regs relate to children being 'overdosed' on certain meds, including Medised being frequently used by parents as an aid to sleep, rather than for illness - scary stuff.

alyth

As a total aside to this, but along the same lines, I work part time in a shop. I am unable to sell (and I can't remember the name of it) a can of high energy drink, it has lots of italic writing all over it, to under 16s. The laws when it comes to selling things are bizarre, I am allergic to my dog but would never get rid of her, so I take antihistamine tablets, like hayfever tablets. I am unable to buy more than two packs of those at Tescos. When I go to the self-service till it comes up "do you know you are only able to buy two packs of these".

I can sell red bull to under 16s thought - just not this particular can of drink! Or just typing that maybe I should check when I go to work tomorrow whether I can or not!

LJM

i had that for mediced, i think thats silly for cough medicine

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Hmm - I have noticed that you do tend to face the Spanish Inquisition from the sales assistants at the chemists these days.

You could go in there coughing so much that you've slipped a disc, it's non productive, you're in agony, haven't slept for days due to pain and the GP has specifically told you to go and get codeine linctus as it is the ideal medication for the job, but that it is much, much cheaper to buy it OTC, which is why he's been told not to prescribe it.

They decide to peer into your eyes to check whether they're contracted or not, ask whether you've tried their incredibly expensive paracetamol and fake lemon powder rubbish, suggest a completely useless (and very expensive) cough mixture which is essentially syrup with added Tartrazine. They query very loudly whether the doctor really said you should buy codeine. Yes. Then you very politely ask if it would be better to speak to the pharmacist themself and they sulkily wander off for 10 minutes whilst you feel like you should be waiting by the room where they dispense the methadone scripts.

Then pharmacist comes up, you repeat yourself. The pharmacist does no more than pick up the bottle and hand it to you without further ado. The sales assistant sniffs all the way through the transaction.


Which also reminds me, I was told once to get Phenergan (I think) as it was the ideal medication as Nytol was useless and the sales assistant was nagging me about going to the doctor as she wasn't going to sell it to me again. So I went back and asked for it. They refused. Point Blank.

And they refused to serve a 15 year old (DD's best mate) the Pill without her mum present (surely if the GP has prescribed it for her, she's been deemed Gillick competent and it is negligent not to dispense it to her in view of the consequences of not making it available to her?).

Sigh.

mummydarling

Alyth- go to Poundland, you can get anti-histamines in there for a quid a pack, and you could probably go back 20 times a day, and they won't ask you all the questions.
Same goes for simple analgesics, 3 packs for a pound, can't buy this many in one go anywhere else!

As for the children's mixtures, the pitbull in my Tesco won't sell me anything especially Calcold, which used to be great for my little one when he had a cold. Something to do with the fact that chemists were not stressing the importance of NOT giving normal paracetamol products alongside calcold.
I am a nurse, so quite well up on medicines, but I now tell this woman, who clearly has a large inferiority complex that it's for me, not my child. She always sells it with a big pout!!