or just naive at medication available over the counter abroad?

[PacificDogwod]

Just back from holiday (Spain) with my parents.
My father had forgotten various fairly heavy-duty heart medication (he is just 8 weeks after open heart surgery) and every single thing he needed was readily available over the counter .

Much as that was very convenient for us (no doctor visit), I was quite staggered how unsafe that practice potentially was. We had to provide no evidence that that was what he was actually on or that we knew what doses he needed, no questions were asked.

Btw, Bisoprolol (b-blocker) 2.5mg x28 tablets: 2 Euro 40
Rivaroxaban (blood thinner, NOAC) 15mg x28: 83 Euro and change
Amoxicillin 1g x30: 11 Euro + a few cent

Oh yes, this reminds me of a holiday to Mexico in 2003. Had a really bad headache so bought some OTC painkillers. Oh my goodness, I was on another planet they were so strong. And rather lovely. Not dissimilar to the prescription strength codeine I was given in the UK for a trapped nerve in my neck. Our OTC stuff are really weak in comparison.

I got an awesome cold relief tablet in Athens. Had 6x the amount of decongestant the UK ones have. It was a bit pricey but I only needed one or two tablets rather than a whole packet.

I think in this country we're over protected by the state, and the medical industry is over-professionalised.

Some of the airports in Mexico have pharmacies in departure lounges advertising valium and viagra.... as well as antibiotics, steroids etc

Singapore is similar to the UK in that you need ID to buy ibuprofen otc and rationed and it's weak.... I used to buy super strength ibuprofen in Thailand on holiday.

I'm shocked at how readily some doctors prescribe strong, opiate derivative painkillers over quite long periods in the U.S. There is a real problem of addiction and abuse of prescription drugs there.
I think there have been efforts to improve practice

Can you get domperidone otc in Spain.

Angel, you live in a less regulated country than Belgium. No medication is available in the supermarket and even some skin products are only available in a pharmacy. Super expensive too even if you have medical cover (which most people do as there is no NHS here). We always buy paracetamol, iboprufen and other stuff in the UK when we visit.

Or anywhere else nearby

I do wonder, reading these, if we wouldn't be better to be able to just buy what we want (antibiotics excepted, perhaps) and knock stuff on the head quickly. As it is, we wait weeks to see a GP (by which time it's got worse), they try you on the cheapest weakest thing they can which invariably doesn't work and you have to go back again, wasting a second GP slot. By the time you get anything strong enough to sort it out the original minor issue has grown to fairly uncontrollable proportions and is much harder to get a grip on.

Perhaps we should all be allowed to take more responsibility for ourselves.

After Dd got some really nasty mozzie bites in Ibiza we got her some pretty strong antihistamines and strong steroid cream to sort them out - dh has the cream on prescription only here in the UK and the antihistamines were stronger than we can get over the counter too.

Feel the need to jump in here and defend my homeland

You cannot buy OTC antibiotics in Canada. There are a few unscrupulous internet pharmacies, sadly based in Canada, that may sell them but it's not legal.

Some pet stores sell fish antibiotics over the counter and it gives me the rage

Sundayspilot I thought it seemed unbelievable when my friend was telling me this but she swore it was true and she spent her first 25 years there so who was I to argue. Maybe she has a dodgy contact?

I dont know but maybe it has to do with the fact that to work in a pharmacy in Spain you need a 5 years degree in pharmaceutical science?
I have never been sold antibiotics without a prescription in Spain.

I bought all sorts otc in Indonesia, tramadol for one, health care was really cheap too, 3 nights in hospital was about £200 (I got malaria)

My family always buy me eczema creams and ointments in Spain because I have to wait in the UK for a doc appt even though I've been treating it for 15 years and my sisters a doctor and advises me ... I love the availability in Spain

Perhaps we should all be allowed to take more responsibility for ourselves.

I am rather sceptical of that, on account of most people being idiots.
At the very least antibiotics should be exempt from any such law reform, as excessive use of antibiotics has an impact on other people, too.

Oh, and medication that might kill people with an overdose - you don't know whether the person buying it wants to give it to someone else.

I'm shocked at how readily some doctors prescribe strong, opiate derivative painkillers over quite long periods in the U.S. There is a real problem of addiction and abuse of prescription drugs there.
I think there have been efforts to improve practice.

Deaths related to prescribed opiates and the corresponding street market for these (and fake knock-off drugs) are going up and up in the States, and are on the rise in the UK too.

Not every pain needs codeine or morphine, no every insect bite needs anything, not every infection needs an antibiotic (we have immune systems).

I very much think that people ought to have more responsibility for their own health.
As it is currently in the UK, the person signing the prescription is responsible

I've also had strong cream and probably antibiotics from a pharmacy in Spain. I get really bad reactions from mosquito bites - they come up as bruises several inches across and are incredibly itchy - I just went and showed the pharmacist and he gave me cream and tablets.

We've also had the 600 mg ibuprofen tablets too. I'm not sure that it is more lax in Spain - I don't think you can get much, if anything in the form of painkillers from supermarkets and what you buy from pharmacists is supervised/dispensed by the pharmacist, who (I think) is more qualified on these matters than most GPs.

Whether you get them from the pharmacist or doctor, or go round all the supermarkets in your city stocking up on paracetamols, it's still your responsibility to take them sensibly.

I love foreign OTC

I get stuff in italy 🇮🇹

I will Never ever forget Turkish Night Nurse

Many years ago awesome stuff

I tend to agree about anti biotics
I got a major bollocking on here actually about buying them and using them and it
Made me think

But in italy you can get Diclofenac which for emergency back pain is great

and I light get some emergency amoxicillin

I'm in the UK and have many times taken women from (mainly) S Africa and France off the contraceptive pill that they have been buying over the counter after uncovering significant contraindications. they never thank me for the interest in their health and I suspect go to another clinic and just don't declare the issue....

Is Diclofenac potentially dangerous? I take that for muscle spasms and the doctor presribed me a huge pack told me to take one a day for five days and then use the rest when I thought I needed them. I still have the same pack on the go about five years later.

€3 odds for a box of tramadol in spain, diclofenac €1.18 I think I paid, ... I honestly do my back in nearly every time we're away.

Have also bought propranolol when a nice child stood on my handbag and burst all my capsules