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!

I’ve noticed this too, it’s the bigger store in our town centre mainly, the smaller ones still have it on the shelves.
Imodium is behind the counter though so I bulk buy Loperamide from Amazon. Much cheaper and just as effective as Imodium.

well lets think
you could return to North America.... buy & take 200 paracetamol and see what happens.... go to an independent chemist that is likely to have shorter queues.

I buy a certain painkiller that's available from behind a counter in Boots but not the pharmacy. Normally I get a 5 minute lecture on how much to take etc etc but last time a young guy asked me if it was for me (none of his business) and also what it was for (definitely none of his business).

I really wanted to say in a very loud voice - "Actually it's for relieving pain in my genital area" but I didn't think quickly enough.

Why do multiple people on this thread think mentioning periods or vaginas is going to embarrass grown adults working in a pharmacy. No matter what is wrong with you I guarantee you they've seen and heard worse.

I take medication for high blood pressure and was at the pharmacy last week collecting my meds, while I was waiting I popped a box of Lemsip on the counter. The pharmacist has my meds on repeat on the computer, so she can obviously see my meds list. She wouldn’t let me buy the Lemsip because it’s contraindicated with BP meds. I didn’t know this.
I’ve also got Glaucoma and use pressure lowering eye drops and have known Buscopan or antispasmodic tablets aren’t to be taken by glaucoma patients but I didn’t know about Lemsip and bp meds so I was grateful to her for telling me.

Not sure what the 🙈 face is about. OTC meds can only be sold under certain circumstances. If you've had two episodes of thrush in that time period the assistant was totally correct to refuse sale and refer you to the GP. It's because it might not be thrush and people could be repeatedly medicating a different condition (e.g. BV in best case scenario, gyn cancers in worst case) incorrectly. You'd be moaning if it had turned out to be something serious and 'that pharmacist didn't diagnose me properly'.

Also North America advertises Oxy OP! Not sure we want to go down the route of easily accessible addictive meds.

Where are you? Ive got an arthritic knee, that flared up after Xmas and couldn’t walk. I had an X-ray last month and given Cocodamol 500/30 strength, a box of 30.
My aunt, aged 92 had a GP house call last week, ( After my cousin contacted her surgery, we are worried about her, she won’t accept she needs help, hasn’t seen a doctor for a long time) GP arranged an X-ray and painkillers and is getting her an occupational therapy assessment. .

I've got arthritis in my knee (diagnosed by x-ray). I've got slow release morphine to take twice a day and have got dihydrocodeine and paracetamol to take as well if I need to.

I have physiotherapy privately which does help with arthritis but if Im walking around the shops sheesh the back pain is bad so I take paracetamol before I leave home. Driving can sometimes be painful when I get out of the car. I'll try to get an appointment at the GP

Same for me, until Boots started selling Atkins products then it was all OK.

I think it was the pharmacy section who wouldn’t sell the urine strips, but had to when the non-pharmacy part of Boots wanted to make money by selling Atkins branded Protein bars or something similar.

What on earth did they think you were going to do with the urine strips that was so well dodgy then?

I know one of the sudafed has to be behind and questioned because it can react with other medication. I use the boots version and are asked every time I buy it about other medication

The aim is to go “into ketosis” . The urine strips tell you whether or not you’re there.

There is (or was) a school of thought which says that can be bad for your health.

But the rub is, even if you say it's confirmed thrush by swab, they still try to not sell it to you. A GP won't give you a prescription, because it's OTC, so you lie. So what's the point of the continuous going round the houses?

The GP should (and can) give you a prescription in this scenario, so your complaint lies with them. I'm in Scotland (free prescriptions so the GP would just prescribe) and it's a long time since I worked in community so can't speak from personal experience, but the pharmacist has no proof it's been confirmed by swab. What you see as going round the houses is pharmacists adhering to legal restrictions and best practice. The point is so they don't get sued. If you lie to them, that's fine, accountability lies with the patient. It's not patient-focused, but it's the reality of litigious healthcare.

Buy some athletes foot cream. Same active ingredients and no interrogation.

Really? a man who works on a pharmacy counter gets flustered when you say period pain??

often, if they’re young and just a sales person. Not a pharmacist obviously. Especially if you fixedly look them in the eye!

Really? I doubt most men care?

Don't stare at people like that it's rude

Why do multiple people on this thread think mentioning periods or vaginas is going to embarrass grown adults working in a pharmacy. No matter what is wrong with you I guarantee you they've seen and heard worse.

because they do? I didn’t make the rules that say some men get flustered at things like periods when it’s ridiculous. But if I say ‘I have a headache’ they’ll give me a million questions and ‘suggestions’, if I say ‘period pain’ they just hand it over. Again, I’m not talking about trained pharmacists but sales assistants who are often the worst quizzers.

VOLTAREN
10$amazon 100mg
one at 150mgis 11.50 $
in the states
4pack is ebay /20$
it does not cost thousand