Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Woman on the Sainsbury's pharmacy counter

394 replies

SoggyBottomBoys · 18/02/2017 12:35

Shopping in big Sainsbury's this morning with baby. Tried to buy some Solpadeine at the counter. Have been suffering from various post-birth complications and SPD that's flared up pretty badly (I was basically hobbling). Conversation (in full earshot of 3 people queuing behind) goes like this:
Pharmacy assistant: Have you taken this before?
Me: yes
PA: Are you on any other medications?
Me: No.
PA what are you taking it for?
Me: I'd rather not discuss that.
PA: Then I can't sell this to you.

And she refused to sell it to me! Unless I told her what was wrong with me. Which (because I was really annoyed/emotional by this point) I refused to do. So I walked off almost in tears and now have to lug myself to a chemist to buy some when I can frankly barely walk.

Am I right in thinking she crossed a line here? The first two questions are completely fine. I have no problem with being warned of side effects, don't take for more than 3 days, etc. But the third one just seemed so intrusive, especially in public when it's a woman who clearly has a small baby they have recently given birth to. They can't demand you tell them what's wrong with you...can they?!

Tell me if IABU... as I am so cross I'm considering complaining.

OP posts:
JoanofNark17 · 18/02/2017 14:06

Joan seems be making rather strenuous efforts to start a bunfight in here when a number of pharmacists & related professionals have all patiently explained their legal duties and the training. Give it a break

No, I am trying to point out that PHARMACISTS who have training are not the same thing as pharmacy assistants who may have training, but equally may have fuck all.

But hey, if you are so happy in your nanny state that you are happy for shop assistants to demand your personal medical details in front of a crowd of shoppers and then decide if you are allowed a painkiller, I guess thats your choice!

GahBuggerit · 18/02/2017 14:06

Joan, like it or not pharmacy assistants and technicians should ask these questions before selling certain medication.

i know that it must be galling to think that a minimum wage lakky knows more about pharma than you, but its probably true given their training is not done in a day online or in house.

when i worked as a dispensing technician i caught a potentially fatal interaction between prescribed medication v the customers long term repeat prescription that the locum doctor missed. this was when i was a minimum wage gcse level unskilled kid. a kid that had to pass a 2 year course and probably saved that persons life

illegitimateMortificadospawn · 18/02/2017 14:06

Many mature students on MPharm degrees are experienced dispensing technicians 'upskilling' to registered pharmacist status.

JoanofNark17 · 18/02/2017 14:07

It's absolutely not fair for you to sit and call people stupid just because they don't start a job with a degree

It wouldn't be fair but then I said nothing like that. Unless you are calling untrained or little trained people stupid? I didn't!

Your staff might be well trained, but not all are.

Jenbob13 · 18/02/2017 14:07

I rest my case ^^.

JoanofNark17 · 18/02/2017 14:08

i know that it must be galling to think that a minimum wage lakky knows more about pharma than you, but its probably true given their training is not done in a day online or in house

I'm a biologist by training, so I doubt that.

BeaveredBadgered · 18/02/2017 14:12

joan legally pharmacy assistants must be trained or undertaking training and closely supervised to sell medicines behind a pharmacy counter. If an untrained person not undergoing training is selling medicines in a pharmacy then it's a matter for the GPhC to investigate.

Jenbob13 · 18/02/2017 14:12

Biologist by training, ignorant by nature.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 18/02/2017 14:13

YABU, yes.

I would imagine that one of the reasons you were told that she wouldn't sell it to you is because you had a new baby with you.

When I had DS1, I was also given a prescription for warfarin, because of a blood clotting condition I have. I took it to Tesco pharmacy, and had DS1 with me - so they asked me similar questions and THEN phoned the hospital to check that they were ok to give me the warfarin that was on a HOSPITAL prescription (they hospital had run short of warfarin for outpatients that day so told me to go to a local pharmacist instead). And this was all fine, because they were checking that it was ok to sell me the medicine, because I had a new baby and was breastfeeding.

It might be that the person in the pharmacy should have asked you first if you were breastfeeding - but your caginess in refusing to answer what you wanted it for would have set off alarm bells for them, and they are within their rights to refuse to sell it to you if they have any concerns about it being used inappropriately.

I hope you managed to get some pain relief elsewhere though, because SPD is a bugger. :(

GahBuggerit · 18/02/2017 14:14

oops Grin

im surprised then at your lack of knowledge on this area

BeaveredBadgered · 18/02/2017 14:14

I agree jen this thread has gotten very silly.

OhTheRoses · 18/02/2017 14:14

Actually op, I've had similar in my local Sainsbury's superstore. Not quite doing anything wrong but somehow unhelpful and a bit officious. My local pharmacies would have dealt with it so much better and do. It's just that Sainsbury's seems so convenient when you're there already but often it isn't a good experience.

It wasn't Kiln Lane was it?

If you're in real pain do you think your GP might prescribe something stronger than the codeine you can buy otc. I hope you feel better soon.

FitzChivalry · 18/02/2017 14:17

The whole point of the training is to train the counter person on when they need to refer to the pharmacist and what information to get.

Silvercatowner · 18/02/2017 14:19

I take co-codomol and have a prescription for it. I regularly buy OTC as it's less hassle and price wise not much different. I shop in a few pharmacies. The questions asked as I buy it vary hugely, from nothing, I just pay and leave, to the 'only take it for 3 days' type questions (I've been taking it for years, on prescription....). I've only ever been asked once what I need it for, and, like the OP, would find that an intrusive question from someone with no qualifications.

Olympiathequeen · 18/02/2017 14:22

She has absolutely no right to ask you private medical questions. I would complain to the store manager. No bloody right at all. I'd be furious too.

Jenbob13 · 18/02/2017 14:22

Beavered I swear i'm not normally this aggressive but I am currently in early labour so my threshold for bullshit is at a minimum and the pharmacy threads really get my goat lol.

Maybe coming on here to distract me wasn't such a good idea.

LisaMed1 · 18/02/2017 14:23

Codeine can be a cough suppressant. I went in for solpediene for period pain when I had a cough and I nearly didn't get it. They can't risk selling something that is being used to suppress a cough when a doctor hasn't checked it out.

It just goes to show, medicines can be dangerous. They work by altering things in your body. It pays to be careful. I hope you feel better soon.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 18/02/2017 14:23

I've only ever been asked once what I need it for, and, like the OP, would find that an intrusive question from someone with no qualifications.

Fortunately as someone has pointed out the person asking the question will most likely to be qualified since it's a requirement for them to be, so that won't be a problem.

nursebickypegs · 18/02/2017 14:24

Sorry, she was doing her job. I collect scripts in my nurse uniform and still get asked. Get over it.

Hisstory · 18/02/2017 14:24

She has absolutely no right to ask you private medical questions. I would complain to the store manager. No bloody right at all. I'd be furious too.

Would you really be furious? That seems like an extreme reaction Confused Shock

illegitimateMortificadospawn · 18/02/2017 14:25

Kudos Jen - hope you have a good labour. Maybe step away from this thread before your blood pressure starts to worry the midwife. Wink

GahBuggerit · 18/02/2017 14:25

and just to add, no pharmacy assistant is ever remotely interested in personal medical information, they are interested in checking you are asking for the right medicine for the problem. the number of times i was asked for head lice treatment for pubic lice, had people buying lemsip AND paracetamol with the intention of taking them together, people with heart conditions wanting ephedrine based medicines, buying canestan for oral thrush, people with chronic constipation wanting codeine based painkillers to help the pain........

JoanofNark17 · 18/02/2017 14:26

To be clear: there is nothing particularly wrong with pharmacists or properly trained pharmacy techs to do what is required of them by law in an appropriate and confidential way. Which , by the way, is part of the training. #
Asking an obviously upset, clearly postnatal woman about her pain needs in full hearing of the entire queue is not professional, or required by the law.

If you continue to argue that it is, perhaps you need your own training updated to include the sensitivity part.

Sallystyle · 18/02/2017 14:27

Yes, "the power" - that's EXACTLY what it felt like! "I have the power to refuse you this, unless you submit to everything i want to ask you like a good girl". The dynamic felt wrong somehow.

How bloody dramatic and stupid. It's quite laughable really.

I would work on not being embarrassed by saying you have SPD. You can also ask to speak to them in private, you chose to go home without your meds instead which was a bit silly really. All you needed to do was ask to speak somewhere privately and all would have been fine.

She was doing her job and if you couldn't bring yourself to tell her why you needed it she is within her rights not to sell it to you.

Other pharmacists might not ask but it doesn't mean that they shouldn't.

Silvercatowner · 18/02/2017 14:27

the person asking the question will most likely to be qualified since it's a requirement for them to be

Given that I am often served by youngsters who have Saturday jobs, I really doubt they have pharmaceutical/medical qualifications!