WARNING - Scam in your local pharmacy

Paul_the_Painter

Other interesting placebo effects:-

The colour of the packet makes a big difference.
A saline injection works better than a suger pill.
Placebos still work if you tell the patient you are giving them a placebo (and explain what a placebo is!)

purple.sarah

Small shops don't make the same high profits as supermarkets so they can't sell products for the same low prices.

barbiedoll

When I worked in a high street pharmacy, we all worked very hard to ensure that our customers got good value for money. If anyone asked for a branded medicine, we would inform them that they could buy exactly the same drug in an unbranded pack, for a lot less money. Most people were very happy to save money and we never had any complaints about the effectiveness of the unbranded medicines. There were quite a few customers though, who would insist that Nurofen (for instance) worked better than the cheap alternative. We wouldn't dream of arguing with them, it's up to the individual how they spend their money. But there have been several studies which have shown that branded medicines work no better than unbranded ones in blind trials. However, if the participants have been told that they are taking a branded drug, they tend to think that it works better. Even if they were actually taking an unbranded pill! Placebo effect?..........That and the power of advertising!

OP, if paracetamol are cheaper at the supermarket, why not buy them there?

rustyboy21

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

A pharmacy is a store that supplies certain drugs. The only people who can prescribe them are doctors.
The large majority of staff who work behind the counter in pharmacies have no medical training whatsoever, and there should be a registered pharmacist on hand to approve the sale of certain drugs.

I've recently returned from a trip to the USA where I was asked to buy a couple of bottles of acetaminophen (the name given to paracetamol in the US).
Two, 500 count bottles of 500mg tablets were $8.99 from Costco.
This works out at about £6 per pack or 0.6p per tablet (or less than 11p for 18 tablets, or to put it another way, less than half of what supermarkets are charging in the UK)

How can they do it so cheaply?
Economies of scale. They buy in bulk so get it at an extremely low price.
Asda/Tesco/Sainsbury don't buy so many so pay slightly more.
Your local cornershop or pharmacy buys even less so are charged more, which is why they charge more for selling them.

Agree with most of your post.

However, You say only a doctor can prescribe the drugs.

There are 3 classifications for drugs in the UK.

In the United Kingdom the Medicines Act 1968 governs the manufacture and supply of three categories of medicine:[4]

• Prescription-only medicines (POM) which can be sold by a pharmacist if prescribed by a prescriber
• Pharmacy medicines (P) which may be sold by a pharmacist without prescription
• General sales list (GSL) medicines which may be sold without a prescription in any shop

Therefore a pharmacist is able to prescribe certain drugs himself which are not available over the counter willy nilly. The same drugs, can also be prescribed by a GP on a prescription. Drugs have a symbol on the side of the box, namely POM for only on prescription, P when pharmacist can prescribe and GSL for things like paracetamol. If you wanted co codamol you would have to get ok off pharmacist as is a P product. They alos have the ability to prescribe certain POM drugs too.

When I go on holiday I stock up on voltarol gel and antibiotics as you can buy them over the counter there and voltarol is 60-70% cheaper in Spain than in UK.

Fiddlestick

P meds aren't prescribed - they are sold without a prescription but only by a pharmacist.

That's not quite the same thing.

Fiddlestick

Also co-codamol is GSL on lower strengths, usually 8/500

rustyboy21

Fiddlestick wrote: »

P meds aren't prescribed - they are sold without a prescription but only by a pharmacist.

That's not quite the same thing.

The pharmacist can still refuse to sell you them. It is on his judgement, if they are warranted. If he says no, you cannot get them. That is why they are behind the counter and usually the assistant has to ask permission off the pharmacist.

rustyboy21

Fiddlestick wrote: »

Also co-codamol is GSL on lower strengths, usually 8/500

Co Codamol are always behind the counter, therefore not on general sale. They have a P on the box. I am on 30/500mg ones and they are POM

VfM4meplse

Dave_C wrote: »

]It doesn't help having the utterly stupid and pointless law limiting paracetamol to 32 tablets per purchase to stop paracetamol overdose.

Stupid in your opinon, if you have ever seen anyone die of a paracetamol overdose you would be a little less gung-ho. The limit to 32 packs of paracetamol wasn't the simple change to implement that it should have been, primarily because of the public's difficulty in accepting that 100 packs were no longer routinely saleable. ODs due to paracetamol ingestion have however reduced considerably.

Dave_C_2

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Stupid in your opinon, if you have ever seen anyone die of a paracetamol overdose you would be a little less gung-ho. The limit to 32 packs of paracetamol wasn't the simple change to implement that it should have been, primarily because of the public's difficulty in accepting that 100 packs were no longer routinely saleable. ODs due to paracetamol ingestion have however reduced considerably.

As you say it is my opinion and agreed it would be nasty, but I still insist that the law as it stands is stupid. In my post number 16 I did say that I could buy paracetamol from 4 adjacent stores. This was without walking further up the high street. This law is not going to prevent paracetamol overdose in anyone determined enough when all they have to do is go to a few adjacent shops.

Dave