to think if you go to a pharmacy for advice..

[SouthernComforts]

and they tell you to take the child to the urgent care centre then that's what you do?

Don't want to dripfeed so here's what happened -
I was waiting for a prescription, a mother comes in with a child about 12, with a very angry rash on her face/neck. She told the pharmacist the girl was feeling very unwell etc. The pharmacist spoke to the girl then asked the woman to take her to the UCC.

The woman's reply straight away was "oh, I'm not driving all the way up there for this."

The UCC is less than 10 minutes drive from the pharmacy.

Aibu to have been at this? I know it's none of my business but I was really shocked at her reaction!

Well, totally pointless really isn't it to ask for advice and then ignore it!

Nowt as queer as folk hey :)

Why ask if you dont want to hear the answer!

Last time I asked the pharmacist to look at something (a weird, large spreading bruise) he almost jumped in the air, said 'Yeurch! Wow! I really dont like the look of that. Is it septisemia?'. Not very helpful.

She was probably just hoping for a cream or something. I'm always a bit about pharmacist having been given wildly varying, very unreliable and often quite ridiculous advice from many of them on a regular basis.

The girl was about 12 you said, so not a baby.

A pharmacist once told me I almost certainly had a brain tumour because I went in asking for painkillers for a headache. I tend not to ask for their advice any more.

Here we go again - time to bash the Pharmacist!

Southern Comforts - It doesn't surprise me at all. Some patients are desperate to be sent to A&E with a splinter in a finger others won't go when you can see bone!

Hmm, I've never been to a pharmacy for help so I don't know how good my local one is, but I was just surprised that she came in, got advice, then said no to that advice and left.

Hey ho.

I went in to buy travel sickness bands for morning sickness because it was the only 'cure' I hadn't yet tried. I was only 12 weeks pregnant, i'm not a fat person and obviously wasn't showing yet. The pharmacist said 'Oh don't get them for morning sickness, they don't work. Try arrowroot biscuits'.

I was a bit Imagine if i'd not been pregnant.. Also I did listen to her and suffered for another month. With DD I bought them and they were fantastic.. Wish i'd ignored her.

Yanbu.

We've got a great pharmacy nearby. They always listen properly and take the time to really examine rashes etc. They can also prescribe quite a few things over holiday periods so you don't have to see the out of hours doctor. One of them also phoned our Drs surgery when I was worried about DS (the receptionist had refused to give him an apt) and insisted we were given an apt straight away. It's a lovely service. No pharmacist bashing from me!

Yanbu.

We've got a great pharmacy nearby. They always listen properly and take the time to really examine rashes etc. They can also prescribe quite a few things over holiday periods so you don't have to see the out of hours doctor. One of them also phoned our Drs surgery when I was worried about DS (the receptionist had refused to give him an apt) and insisted we were given an apt straight away. It's a lovely service. No pharmacist bashing from me!

I don't really see why anyone would ask a qualified medical practitioner's advice then discount it like that - she could have asked if there was anything to treat a rash, as that seems like what she wanted to know.

That said, I do think it would be good if it were clearer what pharmacists can and can't do, and are or aren't qualified to do. I've have a pharmacist tell me 'oh, this prescription is wrong, I will get you the other one' when I've been prescribed a slightly unusual birth control drug for the very good reason that the common alternative carries a risk, for me, of stroke and death. I've had a pharmacist feel the need to sit me down and tell me I don't want the prescribed drug 'because it would be much better if you just cheered up' . And I've had them get my prescription wrong on many occasions because they didn't read beyond the first two syllables of the name.

All of those are mistakes I would find perfectly excusable in someone who I don't expect to be infallible. And I know now that pharmacists are not doctors, don't know much about medicine, and shouldn't be trusted to know. That's fine. But lots of people are given to expect they are like medics and know their stuff.

Maybe this woman was also unsure of how much a pharmacist could be expected to know, and just expected someone who might be able to recommend a minor treatment. Maybe (like me) she'd prefer to ring NHS direct or go to A&E, instead of taking advice without checking it first?

We also have a fab local pharmacy. Fabulous advice saves me bothering dr dh with my worries and they even deliver the prescriptions! I luuurve them!

My local pharmacist is fab and they dont diagnose willy nilly as some have suggested they are not witch doctors, anyhoo that stupid lazy woman why ask when she wasn't going to take her Daughter where was suggested bet she was 1 of those 'very busy mums' and didnt have time cos she was so 'busy'

I think that "pharmacists don't know much about medicine" is a very harsh sweeping generalisation. As with every profession there are bound to be good ones and bad ones. As a qualified dispensing technician I have worked with both kinds. I go to pharmacists for advice and use my own common sense. It sounds like the woman just wanted to be given something for it and get on with it.

Pharmacists are not there to dispense medical advice. If the rash turned out to be something serious and the pharmacist had not told her to go to the doc's/hossy then she would probably then turn round and sue the pharmacist

YANBU. I once walked into a chemist with what I thought was an itchy and rapidly spreading allergy rash The pharmacist took one look at me, asked if I had a sore throat and when I said i did told me she thought I had a throat infection which had caused blood poisoning and told me to go directly to A&E - she even rung ahead to tell them I was coming and called me a taxi

She was right. I would never have made the connection between itchy rash and sore throat and assumed they were completely unrelated