Pharmacy Assistant

[thinkfast]

I felt a migraine starting this afternoon and rushed to the pharmacy as I was out of my usual medication, migraleve.

I asked for migraleve and the pharmacy assistant told me they were put of stock and suggested I buy migraitain instead. I asked if it was the same medication and she told me it was, just a different brand name. I asked to look at the box and saw that the product that she recommended contained sumatriptan. I said this isn't the same as migraleve - this is sumatriptan. I said that migraleve contains paracetamol, codeine and an anti sickness drug.

She said was adamant it was the same, telling me they are both for migraines. I said it's not the same. It's a similar sounding brand name, for the same condition but contains an entirely different drug. I then asked for paracetamol and codeine, which she said I had to speak to the pharmacist about.

I also bought some preservative free eye drops, after she told me I should just the the normal ones as they are cheaper, despite me saying I had an allergy to the preservative.

I then spoke to the pharmacist who sold me the paracetamol with codeine and I complained about what has just happened. I suggested he speak to her to explain that she shouldn't tell customers that a product is the same, if it contains an entirely different drug. He told me the product she recommended was very good and I said that's not the point. Sumatriptan doesn't work for me, and it was dangerous to present to customers that a product contained the same drug when it didn't. Pharmacist just shrugged and made me feel I was being unreasonable. Was I?

Of course you already know you weren't being unreasonable!

The assistant is a know it all idiot and unfortunately the pharmacist doesn't give a shit. This is why so many people still insist on seeing their doctor, and not the pharmacist!

Good thing you have your head screwed on (no punn intended)

You can now but Migraleve online btw, I did so recently because physical pharmacies are still struggling to get deliveries.

*buy, not but

Not unreasonable in the slightest!

Just because they were designed to treat the same ailment, it doesn't mean they're the same medication. Very dangerous to say it's the same when it's not. As you've already mentioned allergies, but also previous reactions to certain drugs or taking other medications that could interact.

YANBU!

As the pharmacist was so uninterested, do you think I should make a complaint? If so, who could I complain to?

www.pharmacyregulation.org/raising-concerns

You were not being unreasonable! Also sumatriptan is usually only given OTC to migraine sufferers who have previously been prescribed it because it's so specific in its mechanism of action. I wonder if the pharmacist was a locum? When I worked in a pharmacy, the locums were more gung ho because they knew the chances of them getting into trouble was pretty low and they didn't seem to feel as accountable. The pharmacy assistant/dispenser should have been given training and both her and the pharmacist should have known to start with the lowest effective drug and titrate upwards. With migraines, sumatriptan was inappropriate and in the absence of complete migraleve, they should have offered 8/500 co-codamol (which dispensers CAN sell OTC without a pharmacist) and buccastem (which is identical to the yellow tablet in Migraleve) together.
In most pharmacies, you have to have a Sumatriptan card to get sumatriptan because it's heavy duty and it's not actually a painkiller (and not appropriate for some people). Usually you get the sumatriptan card after showing them a prescription/reorder form for sumatriptan given by a doctor. This pharmacy assistant did not ask for these and a pharmacist usually has to do the sumatriptan card consult in the first place and ask the right questions.
There is so much about this situation which is really seriously inappropriate and you should report the pharmacist and the dispenser. The General Pharmaceutical Council will look into the pharmacist.

I just wanted to clarify dispensers/pharmacy assistants can sell co-codamol but not if the pharmacist is on a break at which point they cannot. Was the pharmacist on a break when you went in? Usually they put a sign up if theres no additional pharmacist to cover.

With Migraleve, sumatriptan was inappropriate

Sumatriptan can only be sold OTC if you have a special card from the GP to allow you to do so.

The assistant should never have told you it was the same thing and should have asked the pharmacist to advise you if they were unsure.

We are trained in this and aren't supposed to sell any OTC medicine without proving that we are competent and being supervised by the pharmacist. I would complain to the pharmacy manager and they can look at making sure staff have adequate training to deal with this.

Migraleve is difficult to get hold of at the moment so it might be worth looking into alternatives so you can be confident in what you want when you ask at the counter.

This really needs reporting as both assistant and pharmacist were lacking in strict adherence to safe protocols. Shocking.

The pharmacist was standing next to her talking to someone else while she was serving me. He only got involved when she wouldn't sell me the co codamol and said the pharmacist would have to sell me that.

I knew I did not want sumatriptan as I have a pack already (on prescription) and it makes me very drowsy; I had to look after my kids so would not have taken it.

That's bad, you do need to report this.

She shouldn't have been trying to sell you anything OTC if she's not allowed to sell co-codamol!

Was she a trainee?

‘Sumatriptan can only be sold OTC if you have a special card from the GP to allow you to do so.’

Not true. A pharmacist can sell it and give you a card provided you’ve had a consultation with them.

You are not being unreasonable though they are different medications and the assistant should have sought the pharmacists’ guidance when selecting an alternative. If this pharmacy is part of a chain I’d maybe contact their head office. Complaining to the GPhC is a bit heavy handed for an incident where no actual harm was caused.

Get in touch with their office. It may be a locum pharmacist and I'm pretty sure the owners/managers would like to know what is going on in their shops, even if it's not something they will directly act upon at the moment. I don't think the pharmacist was necessarily in the wrong, sounds like they were trying to diffuse the situation (albeit a little clumsily) but they took ownership of the situation and sold you the medicine you required. You should not have been told that the 2 drugs are the same, they are clearly not but as the pharmacist was close by took over the transaction I think a complaint to the GPhC is unreasonable. That's a very very serious action to take.

I might telephone them in the week to see if there is someone else I can complain to. The pharmacy is independent and I have never seen this particular pharmacist, or that assistant there before.

What has really annoyed me, is that when I said to him, you should explain to her that she shouldn't tell customers that 2 products are the same, just because they are for the same condition, when they are not the same drug, he just said that the one she tried to sell me was a really good product. Maybe it is a really good product, but then she should have said that they had this different, really good product and asked if I wanted to try it instead.

I'm allergic to aspirin and the number of times they've tried to sell me products that contains it is ridiculous!! They've argued the point with me that it didn't and I've had to turn packets over and show them and then they just shrug!

YADNBU.

I’m actually allergic to one of the triptans, and my friend is allergic to sumatriptan, though she can take some of the others. If this happened to her and she just took the assistant at her word (which she never does, admittedly, because she knows she has allergies so she’s not very trusting about ingredients, understandably), she could end up in the hospital.

It sounds like you have the right idea of calling the pharmacy next week if you’d never seen this amazing duo before and see if you can speak to someone who maybe normally works there, and if they still don’t understand the importance of the situation, at that point, I would complain to the pharmacy regulators.

I'd be complaining to all and sundry about that - because any medications in that group send me absolutely batshit insane. I just can't take them, ever.

Fortunately, I obviously come across as knowing my shit and not suffering fools gladly/being calm, polite and assertive and I've been fortunate to never have a single problem in a pharmacist when asking for any OTC/Pharmacy only medications (well, since I got old enough to not look likely to be attempting to stock up for a home meth lab, anyhow).

By all means complain to the company (many 'independents' are actually part of larger chains and if not, there will be somebody whose company it is anyway, who might not want to have adverse events affecting their clients), to the regulators about the pharmacist making an inappropriate recommendation & about the need for additional training of counter staff.

You are definitely NBU.