Pharmacist reviewed my prescription?

[adultcat]

I live in a smallish village - the kind where everyone know each other (or thinks they do!). I serve my doctor and pharmacist where I work so am familiar with them.
Today, I went to collect my repeat prescription and was asked if I had five minutes to spare for the pharmacist to speak to me. We went off in the side room and he logged on to the computer. He then asked me if I was happy with my medication / any side effects. Asked me if I am happy with my contraception and what alternatives there were as I've stopped taking the mini pill as I wasn't getting on with it - he wanted to know why...!
The whole 'chat' felt really uncomfortable, possibly because I serve him as a customer but I was wondering if this is a done thing now? I thought it would be my doctors place to review my medication and check everything is ok?
Has anyone else had this done??

And if not who do you think would be more appropriate to sell it?

WH Smith’s sell bottled water and they sell sweets. So they can sell bottled water and sweets for ten times the price. Given their current problems they could use the profit margin.

Boots sell homeopathic “medicines” which have dosage instructions and, hilariously, quote maximum doses. What’s going to happen if you drink a litre of 100C Arnica? Other than the pain in your wallet, of course. Pharmacists are happy to lend their credibility to the sale of snake oil, so can’t complain when their qualifications are mocked.

Fair enough if you think they should be sold in WHSmith or even not at all but I don’t think pharmacists are any more “lending their credibility” by having it on their shelves than they are to moisturisers which claim to reverse the effects of ageing and numerous other products sold in shops that happen to have a pharmacy counter in them. Should pharmacists refuse to work in shops that sell stage 2 baby milk for example.? A completely unnecessary non evidence based product sold on all supermarket shelves. Certain baby milks are prescribable and baby feeding is something pharmacists are asked about so similarly to homeopathic medicines you could argue that baby milk is part of a pharmacists remit. I don’t see anyone calling for pharmacists to take this action. There’s an inconsistency at play here. I am no fan of homeopathy and wouldn’t dream of recommending it to a patient but people have got a bee in their bonnet about it when there are 100s of non evidence based snake oil products being pedalled all over the place. It’s inconsistent to focus purely on this one.

The legal requirements for packaging of homeopathy are no more the remit of pharmacists than the legal requirements for packaging of multivitamins or a chicken breast. I’m not sure what that has to do with anything.
I absolutely don’t think pharmacists should be pushing these products, overtly condoning their use as “equivalent” to allopathic medicine or suggesting they have anything more than a placebo effect.

No one claims stage 2 baby milk will cure cancer. No one claims stage 2 baby milk is an alternative to anti-malarials.

I doubt you’ll find many pharmacists making those claims about homeopathy and if you do you should report them to the regulator

You seem to have a real issue with pharmacists and homeopathy.
We don’t sell any homeopathic products in our pharmacy and our pharmacist doesn’t recommend them either because he doesn’t believe in them. Just because one pharmacist recommended it does not mean they all do.

One of our local GPs is also a private homeopath and really goes in for it, and when I was pregnant with DD the midwife recommended arnica for after the birth.

Isn’t arnica a natural remedy rather than homeopathy though.
I don’t think anyone would say that all natural remedies don’t work some herbs and plants do have medicinal value (some are a load of nonsense too) but homeopathy is different. Homeopathy is where you dilute something in water so only trace elements are left because water is supposed to have a ‘memory’. It’s obvious nonsense.

Isn’t arnica a natural remedy rather than homeopathy though.

Hence my reference to “100C Arnica” - pure water, which might possibly contain one molecule of something else, but almost certainly doesn’t. As you say, obvious nonsense.

This is the way that the fraudsters get away with it: by confusing “herbal” and “natural” remedies (ie, active chemicals, just sold with less regulation and quality control, but clearly capable of doing something) with homeopathy (crank woo nonsense involving diluting water to the point that it contains nothing but water, while hitting with with a hammer on a leather pad - or not, because the mugs buying it can’t tell and it doesn’t make any difference anyway).

Tincture of whatever may or may not be an effective drug. Water isn’t.

The "Pharmacist prescribed wrong dosage" thread currently in AIBU is a good example of why medication reviews are useful and sometimes essential.

Reflectant
I’m not a toxicologist. I never professed to be such. A toxicologist as I said, who specialises in testing drugs on the human body with a double masters, one of them in toxicology has the same level of qualifications as a pharmacist with an accredited MPharm. Or do you beg to differ?

As for homeopathy not working. I do appreciate that a lot of mainstream anything is crap and doesn’t work. What she recommended is anything but and isn’t on the shelves in Holland and Barrett.

If a toxicologist claims that homeopathy works, he is a charlatan. The end. It’s distilled water. Whether it comes from Holland and Barrett or your unicorn farm: it’s distilled water. Of course, it if isn’t distilled water and contains some active ingredients then it may well work; it also isn’t homeopathy.

JollyGiraffe
Thanks for your well wishes.

Reflectent
😂😂 charlatan. That’s cutting 😬. I can see from your username and stance that you have a scientific mind. That doesn’t mean you have all the answers. It’s a she btw and she’s been accused of much worse I’m sure. Her shoulders are broad. She’s incredibly well respected in her field.

ReflectentMonatomism i was responding to Mudmonster saying that her midwife had suggested Arnica for post birth rather than your comment but of course what you say about the difference between Arnica cream and 100c Arnica is very correct.

A pharmacist picked up interactions between two of my medications; I always choose to talk about drugs with a pharmacist as they know more about them and are more up to date about them than a doctor.

I shared flats at uni with both medical students and pharmacist students; a friend has a doctorate in pharmacology. Dentists, like doctors, take a five-year degree. They are medical professionals with different skills and knowledge, just as different doctors have different skills - I really wouldn't want my GP replacing my knee. In addition, pharmacists are counted as Primary Health Care, just as doctors are.

@TooManyPaws was it a significant interaction though? Anyone taking several meds will have interactions, but many are clinically insignificant. What was it?