Why does Boots gatekeep over the counter medicines?

[Waferbiscuit]

My local Boots has moved all over the counter medicine to behind the counter in the pharmacists section. Items like Nurofen, Calpol or Imodium now have to be obtained by standing in line and requesting it from the pharmacists assistant or pharmacist who then quiz you on need, give instructions for use as if I've never used it before or can't read the label etc. (see photos)

The areas where these items once were available in the main store now are filled with first aid, vitamins and foot files and creams.

The queue at the pharmacy counter is already nuts and all this does is make the queue longer.

Why does Boots do this?

Duty of care? Nanny state?

Concern about customers bulk buying medication?

Genuine concern that staff aren't reading instructions and taking medication properly?

One thing I miss about North America is the easy access to over the counter medicine!

Best to have a comprehensive meds supply at home. Buy painkillers in several stores so there are always plenty in reserve. Among other things.

Have things on standby as it were.

None of that explains why the medicines have suddenly been moved behind the counter. You couldn't buy them before without someone asking you questions.

I remember the very early days of lockdown and one lady employee outside Boots had a loud hailer asking people to move away to where the arrows were or asking them what they wanted to buy. She was on a real jobsworth kick and trying to get people not to go into the store.
I think a few places liked getting revenge on the customers over lockdown

Theft.
My dad in the U.S pays over $1000 for a tube of voltorol, here it's like £13?
You might be able to buy hundreds of ibuprofen in a bottle off the shelf there, but God knows what harm its dojng when people can't afford to see a doctor and just take it to mask the symptoms :(

That's probably because of the rationing

Shoplifting! Maybe it’s a good thing, make people think twice if they genuinely need medication

Granny 85 on a long waiting list for a new knee is in pain continuously. So takes 8 paracetamol a day. We all stock up 2 packets limit when shopping. Her GP won't give her painkillers.

That is terrible. She should be given a prescription for these, I’d complain.

@Flowerfairie - what a load of cobblers. As if a man working behind the counter at a pharmacist would get flustered at the thought of pain relief for periods.

but where would complaining get you? If they won't give them, they won't give them

I said to my DH, just wait till these GP get older and get the bone on bone pain, bet they reach for the drugs then! but we are left just with what we can get OTC

Canestan cream I tried to buy. Assistant said have you had this in the last six months. Yes I naively replied. Then you can't have it again they replied. See your GP. 🙈

He says they're bad for her stomach.

"Over the Counter' means just that, you buy it from behind the pharmacy counter. That's different from things like ibuprofen and immodium etc, as they sell that in supermarkets. I'm guessing shoplifters being their main motivation for this. I doubt the staff are happy about this either. Basically buy it from a supermarket, it will be quicker as you self check out.

Mine told me that painkillers do not work for pain😂

If you use the scan and shop in the bigger supermarkets and have scanned meds you are checked for age and amounts bought etc same as for alcohol.

I dont do this job but having seen a 23 year old who needed a liver transplant because he took 2 x paracetamol products for a period of days without realising (both purchased from a supermarket), I can see the need in it and support the regulation such products.

I don't follow your argument here. No pharmacy is going to be able to prevent someone taking double the dosage of paracetamol. (If you mean instead of taking 1000mg at a time, he was taking 2000mg; I'm unclear about this person's dosage). A standard pack of paracetamol has 16 tablets. Nobody can physically stop you from taking them all in one go. They all have dosage information on the back anyway. What do you think could or should have been done to stop this adult taking more, in terms of general access to medicine?

@LoveAHamSandwhich It's really difficult to make out all the products but the cold and flu shelf are all pharmacy only [P] products and have been since 2008 when I last did this job. Voltarol gel has diclofenac so definitely a [P], was prescription only for a long time. The calpol I'm guessing is 200ml only which is a [P]. Top row of pain killers is codeine which again would be pharmacy only.

Only one I'm not sure about is the ibuprofen in the middle which I'm guessing is pack size related.

I have an almost 20 year old catalogue with a lot of these products in it and they have always been behind the counter [P] medicines. For example the night nurse has phenergan in it which can be a fairly strong sleeping tablet, these are not innocent products.

I have confirmed by an MRI arthritis in my lower back and hip. After hoovering the front porch, bedroom, hallway, kitchen and sitting room this morning I was in so much pain, two paracetamol were needed. My GP has given me Gabapentin for the back spasms which do help but sometimes I need extra when I've been busy like this morning.

It's embarrassing being made to feel like a junkie when you pick up paracetamol for pain relief

As for larger packs of paracetamol being behind the counter. There has been a decrease in paracetamol-related deaths since this was brought in it means people have to go to several shops to get enough and often by this time they may have decided against doing it purposefully. See: https://www.bmj.com/press-releases/2013/02/06/43-reduction-deaths-paracetamol-due-smaller-pack-sizes

As for being asked lots of questions. It is a requirement of the counter staff.
For example, if you read the back of this pack, these are the sort of questions that will be asked to determine if the medicine is correct for you. The pharmacist is very unlikely to let you buy it if you have said yes to any of those.

WTF? 😲

Or it would be actual euphoria from being able to leave the toilet for more than five minutes because of the next bout of diarrhoea starting .

Not ours. So must be local to you due to crime and misuse.

There's so little stock in my local Boots that I can't see it staying open much longer. It's the only dispensary in the main shopping part of town, and parking anwhere close to the next two nearest is very hard to find and expensive when you find it. To add to the aggravation, the pharmacist isn't available before 10, between 1.30 and 2.30 or after 4.30, so if you're working it's difficult to get in there at a time when the pharmacist

Thankfully, we have a great independent pharmacy at a small parade of shops at my end of town, along with a few parking bays where you can park for free for 20 minutes. The staff are fantastic, and if they haven't got what you want they can often get it later that day or the following day at the latest. They do deliveries as well, and will often offer to deliver to save you going back.

We have a decent sized Superdrug in the shopping precinct. If they had any sense, they'd put a pharmacy in there and I doubt if anyone would go into Boots at all then.

This did make me laugh. Whilst Boots may not do that, there are a number of retailers who really do seem to send their staff on such a course!

Can I point out that if they are behind the counter in Boots, they are more than likely behind the counter in all pharmacies (or should be) for the reasons that @britnay has put forward.