Medication - forgot to bring it

StuieUK34

Hey all, I made a right boo boo...
On route to the US....
I take 'Sandoz' Bedranol tablets for blood pressure.....
I picked up wrong box, so only got 4 days worth instead of a month's worth.... (will be US for 2 weeks)....

Am guessing I can't just rock up to pharmacy and say I need tablets    , would it be a case of calling doctors in UK to get prescription emailed to me, so I could try and the equivalent type of tablet in the US ?

marcia_

 No a british prescription won't be accepted. You will need to pay to visit a GP and get an American prescription 

martindow

I've no idea what items are prescription only in the US, but it may be worth popping into a pharmacy to see if anything equivalent can be bought over the counter.  If possible this would save a lot of money and hassle.

photome

A quick google search says it is a prescription only medication in the USA so Marcia advice looks spot on


i would still ask in a pharmacy tho


what happens if you don’t take it? Do you monitor your blood pressure?  

martindow

Are all BP medications prescription only?  Taking something similar on the advice of the pharmacist for ten days to tide you over could be possible.  I don't think I would want to stop taking them ...  but again a pharmacist's knowledge would be informative.

I'm wondering about travel insurance - if you needed to claim and it was discovered that you had not been taking medicines that were prescribed and declared to the insurers would they refuse to pay?

Brie

I've found that that side of the pond even things that we buy over the counter are prescription only.  So when I got a real nasty cold sore I thought I could just pick up some zyvolex.  Nope.  $50 for a doctor to write a script and another $60 to get it from the chemist.  So about £75 for an item Boots sells for £5.

lr1277

Just a thought. It is possible the pharmacist or the doctor won't know the British trade names of the drugs you want. Before seeing either of them find the chemical/scientific name to give to the person you are talking to.

Alternatively just take along your current box as that will have all the information that is required including the required dose.

StuieUK34

Cheers for replies all...
Handy info 

Voyager2002

The USA has many online pharmacies (mainly they sell ED medication but provide more mainstream products as well). Part of the service is an online consultation with a doctor for a nominal fee, to enable you to buy from them. This could be a lot cheaper than paying to visit a real doctor.

Doshwaster

Brie said:

I've found that that side of the pond even things that we buy over the counter are prescription only.  So when I got a real nasty cold sore I thought I could just pick up some zyvolex.  Nope.  $50 for a doctor to write a script and another $60 to get it from the chemist.  So about £75 for an item Boots sells for £5.

On the other hand you can get big pots of aspirin, ibuprofen or paracetamol (called acetaminophen in the US) off the shelf in places like CVS when packs in the UK are limited to 16 tablets.

Brie

Doshwaster said:

On the other hand you can get big pots of aspirin, ibuprofen or paracetamol (called acetaminophen in the US) off the shelf in places like CVS when packs in the UK are limited to 16 tablets.

And I've bought them in the past but the last time I checked and realised they weren't actually cheaper than buying a pack of 16 every time I go into Lidl or Tesco.