to expect to be served by the chemist

[drivemecrazy63]

im 50yo I usually buy my sons piriton at my local chemist but decided to just get it with the shopping in ASDA , when I got to the counter she asked umpteen questions on the age who why what for as if she was my GP its piriton I need it for my sons allergy whats the problem im not under 18 for gods sake she refused ive no idea why she wouldnt say , really peed me off I had to then go out of my way again somewhere else to buy it at another chemist who didnt ask anything at all just sold me it .

thats true soup ive never been asked what i want the pain killers for i could for all they know be stuffing them into the kids they dont worry about that or ODing them on vitamins but they ask (and rightly so) questions on the liquid pain killer meds for kids . all three my Dcs can take tablet form now but i think piriton tabs go grom age 12 hes only just 11 ill have a look though and check

oooh im green with envy euro with my hair greying now that will just NEVER happen to me sady

sadly* even

YANBU

Chemist is a nob in the extreme

I think I would have called a boss over for this extreme display of bobbed

Final word there was a actuly nobness

Sigh

Serves me right for making up words I suppose

if it ever did happen again I certainly would, probably would have then if it wasnt 2.30 and needed to pay get home and back to school for 3pm as I was fit to bust I was so angry

There are plenty of antihistamines in tablet form you can take at 11 - both the certirizine one and loratadine. Some are actually from 2 (although I wouldn't fancy your chances of getting a tablet into a 2 year old)

Also, never say Piriton is for your dog . Even though a vet will charge you £60 to administer Piriton if your dog has an allergic reaction, and it is actually licensed for dogs, you cannot say so at a chemist, because they won't sell it to you.

I had to say it was for my 11 year old even though she's never had an allergic reaction of any sort in her life.

yes I used to give our dog who had arthritis calpol he was very old but the tablets from the vet never worked we tried a few diff ones but give him calpol he was right as rein in 10 mins and he liked taking it compared to the trouble we had getting him to swallow tablets vet said it was fine to give him as long as the sugar free one cos of his teeth but I never told the chemist , you could just imagine what they would say

thanks soup ill check out the different tablet forms i just have always used piriton never tried any others

Did she offer you any of the other allergy medicines? there are several non-drowsy (and so less abusable) types such as benedryl syrup (cetirizine) or clarytin syrup (loratidine) which you can get with less suspicion. They also have the benefit of only being needed once a day.

no she didnt I think she full stop didnt want to sell me it , I probably wouldnt change to a different brand anyway as were used to it ,whats wrong with using the drowsy one for night as bedtime is when its at its worst and is the advice normally given by my GP and pharmacist

Nothing wrong with the drowsy one at bed time but if you can give a non-drowsy one, that works just as well, once a day than having to give one up to six times a day that will make your DS sleepy at school etc why wouldn't you? But still it is entirely your choice and you are still not unreasonable as they did not offer an alternative anyway!

I was once refused some of the 1% canestan cream that you can use for athletes foot, jock itch, and fungal nappy rash. Well the doc will prescribe it for nappy rash thats gone fungal. But when I happened to mention that to the woman behind the counter in boots she read the leaflet with it and read out a section that she had decided meant I couldn't use it for my DD's nappy rash... The section had nothing to do with anything!! I went a few doors down and got it from lloyds with no questions...

But then on a different occasion I went to llloyds looking for something stronger than paracetamol/ibuprofen as I'd done something to my back and could barely walk and after 40 million questions told me to go to the docs for a prescription if I needed something stronger. On that occasion I went a few doors up to boots and got codeine with no questions asked.

I'm a friggin adult, just give me what I ask for!! Jeezo!

xstitch is right, there are all sorts of rules and professional standards to which pharmacies have to work and asking the questions prior to selling medicines is often part of the process and the pharmacist in charge can be struck off if they do not do it properly.

I have seen numerous instances, in my last job, of misuse of drugs being highlighted by this (some were intentional, others accidental) On one occasion I asked a man to visit the surgery next door before buying painkillers and that, possibly, saved his life as it was the early stage of a stroke rather than the migraine he thought it was. To my way of thinking it's worth irritating the other 99.9% of you (sorry for that!) rather than leaving even one person dead or disabled.

Having said that I agree with other posters who think the pharmacist should have explained her decision to you and would encourage you to ask Asda to justify this. If she is never challenged she will never improve her decision making

Others? I too said they were unprofessional not to explain there reason for refusal.

When I was a student there was a lady who regularly bought ranitidine (daily). Any time she was questioned by a pharmacist concerned about how much she needed it she moved onto another pharmacy as it was her right to buy it. This went on for over 2 years before she was persuaded to see a dr. It was masking the symptoms of gastric cancer. It would have been treatable if she had seen a dr the first time. These rules are inforced for a reason.

Me and dh nearly got refused to buy antihystermine (sp?) cream by a chemists for my fil. The chemist wanted to know where my fil was... at present he was steering the narrowboat through the next village and we had sprinted over and were having to sprint back to meet later in the journey. What on earth could we do with cream?

Sorry xstitch have just reread my post and I didn't mean that the way it sounded! I just meant I agreed with those who said she should have explained and that did, of course, include you.

Ah god yes, the sudden emergence of getting the third degree everytime I buy Piriton syrup. 20 questions, then the "you can't give it to ds" well, good job I'm buying it for me then as It's what works best for me and dd3 and please give it to me now or I will have an allergy induced asthma attack all over your floor...

I did my online Asda shop this morning and I could order booze, days, (if I wanted) every single otc painkiller or antihistamine or whatever going, including xxx strength death ray Nurofen or Piriton TABLETS, but not Piriton syrup. I mean, It's an otc medicine, what's the deal?

Fags. Not days. Fecking Autocorrect.

It is annoying, but it has to be done. My dd was on infant gaviscon that she was prescribed by GP - occasionally if we ran out and I had to get dp to buy some more from midnight pharmacy, I would tell him to tell the chemist that she was over 1 year old, even though she wasn't, as they wouldn't sell it over the counter for use by kids under 1. Though I don't know of many babies over 1 who still have problems with reflux.

But they have to do it to protect themselves. Just because a drug is available without prescription doesn't mean it can be harmful in certain circumstances e.g if the user is on other medication or has certain conditions. If someone took ibuprofen when they were on anticoagulant drugs it could kill them, for example.

Are you a pharmacist or doc xstitch?

In that situation I would ask for an emergency supply which they are legally allowed to do although some pharmacist have very different ideas from me regarding issues like this.

Qualified as a pharmacist. Been out of pharmacies working in an office part tome for past 2 years (still using my degree though) an still registered wit the society and council. I would always explain why I was refusing a sale and sometimes even offer an alternative. Probably about to out myself but my thesis was on protocols for medicine sales and about previous prescription only stuff being sold. That's how I know so much about things that have gone wrong.

Cool! I'm a med student. Have to say that I am surprised sometimes what you can buy OTC. I was on ranitidine for baaad heartburn during pg and I was surprised when I realised you could buy it OTC as Zantac, if only for the reasons that you stated earlier, it could mask the symptoms of GERD and stop people seeing their GP early on...