Painkiller Allowance - Think I Was Served Wrongly In Tesco

[CurryLover56]

I know you can only buy 2 packets of paracetamol at a time but yesterday I put 2 packets of ibuprofen & 2 packets of paracetamol on the belt & the cashier only allowed me to buy 1 of each. Ibuprofen are anti inflammatory so not the same as paracetamol. Was the cashier wrong? I work on a till & would let someone buy what I was trying to buy.

It may be slightly inconvenient at times but if it prevents even one person taking an overdose it’s absolutely worth it. If you have a medical condition requiring regular painkillers speak to your pharmacist who may sell more at their discretion.

You are clinically correc that these have different mechanisms of action and risk of overdose but that does not drive retail policy.

If you allow someone to buy more than two packets at a time you are leaving yourself open to prosecution personally and for your store.

Please request some refresher training.

@BungleandGeorge

It may be slightly inconvenient at times but if it prevents even one person taking an overdose it’s absolutely worth it. If you have a medical condition requiring regular painkillers speak to your pharmacist who may sell more at their discretion.

I think it does deter people. Even if just a bit. My mum (died of bowel cancer in 2019) talked of wanting to commit suicide several times in her life and was always put off by having to go to several different pharmacies to get enough paracetamol etc to do it. It just makes it more difficult.

I have lupus and take tramadol and paracetamol regularly and have both prescribed in bulk, I get 200 paracetamol at a time (I get free nhs prescriptions on medical exemption so I don’t pay - otherwise obviously it would be cheaper for me to buy them over the counter).

I use Scan And Go at Asda, and it allows two packs of paracetamol and two packs of ibuprofen to be purchased together.

Each pack has 16 tablets in, so 64 tablets is under the '100' guideline.

When you then pay at the Scan And Go checkout, it requires authorisation but the staff always authorise it.

However, Asda online deliveries, and other shops I use, only allow one pack of each, so it's a bit inconsistent really.

They were right. It's 2 packs total.

I really don't understand why they have this limit. It's pointless. If I wanted to take an overdose (I did do thst when younger. Paracetamol. Left me in a bad way) then only being able to buy two packs in a store wouldn't stop me.
Two packs in Tesco, two in sainsbury's, off to Asda, then Tesco express at the garage, finish off with the spar round the corner.

@Zilla1

You are clinically correc that these have different mechanisms of action and risk of overdose but that does not drive retail policy.

Yes but people buying large quantities of medication of any type is a red flag because of overdose and also inappropriate use (taking too many, serious diseases not being treated, treatment ineffective etc). Unmonitored use is only appropriate for very short term conditions e.g. a few doses otherwise they need to see a HCP. Yes it could be a large family have all come down with flu or whatever but most people have some in stock at home and you can obtain more from a pharmacy

FWIW, the last time I looked, the restrictions on pack sales and stopping selling painkillers loose in bottles OTC arguably surprisingly appear to have significantly reduced opportunistic suicide deaths.

It is to prevent overdoses.

And I wish some would take this restriction into account when they spout that "people shouldn't get long term painkillers on prescription - you can buy paracetamol for pennies!"

@SpinningTheSeedsOfLove

I use Scan And Go at Asda, and it allows two packs of paracetamol and two packs of ibuprofen to be purchased together.

Each pack has 16 tablets in, so 64 tablets is under the '100' guideline.

When you then pay at the Scan And Go checkout, it requires authorisation but the staff always authorise it.

However, Asda online deliveries, and other shops I use, only allow one pack of each, so it's a bit inconsistent really.

I was just coming in yo say exactly the same. The scan as you go lady just authorises it at the till.

Where I work you can only buy one pack of tablets at a time. This includes
Diarrhoea tablets and throat tablets, the till won't let us sell any more. The abuse we get from some customers is unreal but it's not our fault and the management won't change it.

@WouldIwasShookspeared actually there is some evidence that it has reduced paracetamol overdoses. Having seen what an untreated paracetamol overdose does I fully support it.

theyre not supposed to authorise more than 2 packets but can prob claim they ddnt see how many there were

@WouldIwasShookspeared

They were right. It's 2 packs total.

I really don't understand why they have this limit. It's pointless. If I wanted to take an overdose (I did do thst when younger. Paracetamol. Left me in a bad way) then only being able to buy two packs in a store wouldn't stop me.
Two packs in Tesco, two in sainsbury's, off to Asda, then Tesco express at the garage, finish off with the spar round the corner.

It’s not pointless at all, when the limit was brought in there was a reduction in paracetamol overdoses

anniegun yes I could have googled it but look at all the different answers on this thread - I wouldn’t have necessarily found the right answer as it seems to vary a lot from shop to shop. My till never stops me selling 2 packs of paracetamol & 2 packs of ibuprofen but it does flag up the age limits on those products.

I do 3 transactions on the self service till to get round this.

@CurryLover56

anniegun yes I could have googled it but look at all the different answers on this thread - I wouldn’t have necessarily found the right answer as it seems to vary a lot from shop to shop. My till never stops me selling 2 packs of paracetamol & 2 packs of ibuprofen but it does flag up the age limits on those products.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/956857/Appendix_4.pdf This explains both the guidance and legal requirements. (they are different)

Seems fair enough tbh I imagine they know the policies they have to stick to in their shop better than you they do it every day

@countbackfromten agreed and delayed effects can be horrific and arguably more gruesome than a quicker method. Although cause and effect is difficult to unpack, I think it contributed to a reduction in overall suicides when correcting for trends and other variable though I'd expect that would be contested.

Although weirdly in Poundland it's 3 packets for a pound - of any combination

@JuergenSchwarzwald have you got evidence for your last statement? Because looking at the ONS figures on suicide I cannot see anything to support that and you should know that such inflammatory statements are ill advised to say the least. I’m reporting your comment.

Also the tesco tills physically don't let you.
Once you've scanned two packets a red error message comes up and you can't scan any more (unless you do it in multiple transactions which they don't really allow either, i never used to allow it anyway)

I worked in Tesco many moons ago and the till would flag it up if too many packets had gone through so it wouldn’t be human error I wouldn’t have thought