Where's all the paracetamol gone?

[damekindness]

Not sure if I'm imagining this but there seems to be less and less paracetamol and other Over The Counter painkillers on the shelves in shops ? None in the local Aldi for weeks.

There's plenty available where I live (Argyll.)

YES! What is going on? Tesco is constantly sold out. I’m pregnant so can’t take anything else for headaches. I’ve been stockpiling from Boots, so I’m guilty of the Boots shortage, it’s all in my medicine cupboard.

There's never ibuprofen here. They fill that space with paracetamol so we have the opposite problem.

Plenty in Tesco (Glasgow) today.

Try the budget shops, such as Home Bargains or B&M. I’m noticing a shortage of a lot of the over counter stuff, but it’s especially the ibuprofen type tablets. I wonder if the sales have increased due to Brexit prepping. If that’s the case, then sorry, most of them are in my storage. 😁

My mum asked me if I'd stocked up for Brexit. Apparently toilet roll is another one. I've not listened to much scaremongering (which I hope it is) but I'm not taking any chances with the bog roll.m

People must be stockpiling them.

In fact that's exactly what's going on. There are so many stories in the news media about medicine shortages post-Brexit.

It hasn't affected our village in the middle of nowhere.

Yet.

I wonder if the government companies are stock-piling them, then November 1st they can produce them all and go 'A fuss about nothing'

(My tin foil hat is snuggly fitted)

I find that those of my clients that are very well traveled, educated/skilled and are very secure financially are the ones that are prepping. They take the attitude that it’s better to be prepared for a worse case scenario, rather that burying our heads in the sand and hoping for the best. Any extra food will get used either way. I’m inclined to agree. I have bought extra over the counter meds, as I suffer a lot from joint and muscle pain.

My tin foil hat is snuggly fitted

makes note to buy extra tin foil 😁

Someone posted the same thread weeks ago so I went to Sainsbury’s to check and the shelves were groaning under the weight of paracetamol so if there are issues, it’s not nationwide.

A comedian made the excellent point the other day that even if you are an excellent prepper you are probably also rightly scared of the ‘bigger boys’ -hoard of angry looters- that will come your way in a crisis.

Either option isn’t appealing 🤦‍♀️

Yes I've noticed it and started a thread about it here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/eu_referendum_2016_/3655638-paracetamol-shortage

Got accused of scaremongering. And some helpful person told me that gosh they haven't taken a painkiller in years, as if those of us in chronic pain choose to be this way.... so that was nice.

My local tesco has had an empty paracetamol shelf for weeks, just a few packs scattered around every time I look. Ibuprofen seems ok though.

Someone posted the same thread weeks ago

Can't say I've noticed
Always seems to be plenty round here.

@LauraKsWhiteCoat phew thought I was seeing things that weren’t there. I share your concern - can’t take ibuprofen only paracetamol for arthritic spine so could potentially have no access to pain relief

Haven't noticed it around here, I know NZ had a pretty bad shortage last year of paracetamol, and the reason for that was just given that the demand exceeded the global supply.

Local Wilko were out of paracetamol and ibuprofen when I went to stock up last week. Anti histamines, ranatadine and imodium were low.

no mosquito stuff either.

Apologies I didn't see the original thread - the current lack of a search function is unhelpful and I don't tend to indulge in the Brexit/prepper threads as it's so polarised and bad tempered (FWIW - Brexit was a shit idea but I've no real idea what will happen come the glorious day) I'm just genuinely curious if it's a national issue and I'm rather selfishly concerned about is not having access to pain

Brexit and reported shortages.
I've got a few packets here and there, but have been doing this for a while, I haven't panic bought, until recently as whole family had flu.
Or lots of people may have had flu.

*painkillers 🙄

It was unavailable when I did a Sainsburys order, last week (but so were about a dozen other products that I sometimes buy!)

Crikey damekindness, only paracetamol for arthritis in the spine? Obviously you know your own body best etc. but bloody hell, you must be made of strong stuff!

Haven't the NHS recently stopped giving paracetamol on prescription too? That could be a contributing factor too.

@GibbonLover I get good pain relief from paracetamol at the moment - but people’s ability to diagnose the severity (or not!) of my condition notwithstanding I just wondered if this was a widespread problem