Cross with Asda ...

[Aggers]

The person in question was, after all, only doing his/her job.

There are dangers in certain combinations of medicines and, generally speaking, pharmacists are
better trained in this subject that most GPs.

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/aches-and-pa ... nurse.html

[miasmum]

I agree with Aggers, they are only doing their job.

Yes if you were determined to take an overdose you would walk to the next shop, but how much more of an effort is that than being allowed to buy enough at kill yourself in one hit? Can you imagine the headlines from the families 'irresponsible pharmacist killed out daughter' NO ONE takes responsibility for themselves now, and if God forbid your medication interacted with your drugs, then they would be at fault.

WM your pharmacy have the inside knowledge of you and your treatment so yes of course it is easier for them. To Boots and Asda you are a random customer who for all they know could be completely stupid and go home and intentionally or unintentionally kill yourself with the mix of drugs they sold you.

I am completely on their side on this. You find a way to get round it, of course you do, but that is your choice, not their fault if something happens to you

[buster]

Our vets prescribed Zantac for our doggy , 3 or 4 times the price to pay in the chemists , so i just go along and answer the questions , "No there not for me" " yes shes had them before" But i tell them there for missus not doggy as they wont sell them to you for a pet !!!!

[pederito1]

Everyone especially with children should have a copy of the BNF and wave it at cheeky pharmacists with a demand to buy anything that is not labelled pom or cd. All cautions and side effects are well listed.

[Aggers]

Anther point, perhaps worth mentioning, is that it is not your chemist who decides not to sell you more than
one packet of Paracetamol, it was a Ministry of Health instruction.

[miasmum]

Everyone especially with children should have a copy of the BNF and wave it at cheeky pharmacists with a demand to buy anything that is not labelled pom or cd. All cautions and side effects are well listed.

and in my case that would do you more harm than the drugs, as I would take it off you and beat you round the head with it

[Workingman]

WM your pharmacy have the inside knowledge of you and your treatment so yes of course it is easier for them.

Shell, that's why I use them - to cut out the hassle. But the system is so flawed as to be almost useless.

Ossie goes to Asda and answer the questions and gets refused the medication... Armed with that knowledge he then wanders in to Boot's and answers "correctly" and ambles home arm-in-arm with his Day Nurse. The chances of him coming to any harm in the short term are in the 0.000001:1 league. However, anyone who became addicted to a drug or wanted to do themselves in would come up with a system to get round the questioning/rules, as people have pointed out. The woman who was addicted to painkillers springs to mind; she had route of over thirty pharmacies she would use so that she was never seen as a regular.

Having said all that, I do agree they have to do their jobs properly, but I suspect that it is more to protect them from litigation than to protect us from the drugs.

[TheOstrich]

I think what slightly saddens me is that this sort of over-draconian nannyism in society today turns us into a nation of liars, telling porkies just to be able to buy something with a risk factor of, to quote WM, 0.000001%.

It would be nice to believe that the Asda pharmacy assistant denied me the medicine out of concern for my personal welfare, but, if she's anything like the rest of us, she did it out of concern for her job.

Now please don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming her - because in her position I'd have done exactly the same thing. In my former role as a number cruncher, I'd tell clients the "right" thing to do, because my training was "that was what you did", and if you didn't, you'd get struck off the Association Of Number Cruncher's register. Mind you, the chances of that happening would be not a lot higher than WM's 0.000001% - but still a possibility.

But I knew that whatever I told my clients to do, the majority would not do it and tell me the odd porkie or two in the process.

Human nature, I guess, but still sad ....