Prescription for calpol

[HeyDuggee24]

My nursery is saying that it will not administer calpol unless i have a presciption for it. I did have one with a prescription on it that i was given before ds was 1 but thats gone now. He needed calpol today but i had to go give it to him. Have made a request at the doctors but they are a bit cause i can buy it. So not sure i will get my hands on it.

Just seems a bit odd really, the prescription is made at one point in time but they administer it with my permission at anytime so i dont get the point. Now im going to have to put my angry parent face on to try and make sure i dont have to be called out of work everytime he needs calpol.

Just wondering if every nursery is the same?

Absolutely not, most will administer on your say so, they ask you to sign something initially to say you give permission, then administer as and when necessary.

My DCS school is the same. It's bloody ridiculous insisting on a prescription when I can buy Calpol very cheaply compared to what it costs the NHS in the appointment for the prescription and the medicine itself

I think they might of possibly taken the statutory framework slightly too far.
Might be worth showing them this and just getting a note from pharmacist in future.

My DS's school was the same too. And GP was not happy about prescribing it.

That's ridiculous, especially when GP services are overstretched and there are government campaigns to get us to use pharmacies instead where it's appropriate. It costs the NHS so much more to issue things like calpol on prescription (doctors time, administration associated with prescriptions etc) and that's taking money away from NHS services which really need the money.

Stupid policies like that make me really angry, all they need to do is to get the parent to sign something to say they're happy for the child to be given calpol. They clearly haven't thought through the wider implications.

I'd put something in writing to the nursery, might hopefully get them to review their policy. I'm sure the GP surgeries in your area would not support their ideas.

My childminder has us sign a form of medicine needs to be administered. No prescription needed for something like that.

Our local chemist will put a label on the side of a bottle with name, dosage etc if asked when you buy it.

They've misunderstood the statutory framework as a pp says. I'm a cm and just require written permission.

Gah, so I'm going to have to do angry parent face at nursery. I hate doing angry parent face at nursery, it makes me uncomfortable.

I too dislike the reliance i seem to have on my loal gp practice keeping my child in nursery. Its just a unnecessary burden on them..

I was about to say what Katniss just said. Could you explain to the pharmacist and just print a label with doses etc and your child's name so the nursery thinks it's a prescription?

I've actually just found the box i originally had with the lable on it and stuck a fresh bottle of calpol in. Only problem is it wasn't calpol pre se, just some random stuff. I dont think it looks too obvious though!

Just make sure the expiry date on the box is ok or they will be ringing you again!!

Honestly, misinformed and mismanaged nurseries (ie taking the framework too literally as pp have said and no common sense) are the bain of primary care/gp land with their frankly outdated and seemingly random rules regarding minor ailments in children. You put that angry parent face on and go tell them!!

Sorry to hijack thread but is this guidance the same throughout the Uk? (Am in Scotland).

I think due to new prescribing rules GPs are unable to prescribe paracetamol now except in rare circumstances. We have been advising patients that they should get some from the chemist who will print a label and put it on the bottle for you.

My nursery won't administer, and won't let them back u til they've been calppol free for 24 hours - you are lucky!!

The nursery we use is the same - no Calpol without prescription.

Ok I'm gonna take the risky side from nursery perspective working in one myself (but also a mother so fully see both sides) however!

We sadly get so many children who are unwell, given Calpol right before nursery, come in and manage the morning then boom - midday appears and they go downhill. Calpol masks things and sadly (although I'm sure it's the minority) some parents do use it to mask things. Our policy is that if your child needs regular Calpol they shouldn't be at nursery.

I understand from a parents perspective, work/cost it's frustrating, and I don't know the reasons your little one was prescribed it so can't comment, but again, we will only accept valid up to date prescriptions, otherwise we could be seen to be giving an unprescribed medication on the say so of a parent alone and it might not be required from a GP perspective

I hope you can come to some resolve but just remember 'angry face' is much better replaced by 'please can we work together' face and more likely to get you a better outcome without rubbing them up the wrong way, good luck :)

Dlah - I totally get where you are coming from and if I think DS needs to come home then I'll take him in a shot.

He wasnt ill before he went in, he just a had a little temp. Came straight back down after one dose of calpol and hasnt raised since. I suspect its his molars making an appearance along with the hot weather.

My point is though, what is an up to date prescription for calpol? Its an over the counter medicine that you give when needed. 9 times out of 10 its given once then not again. So am i expected to go to the doctors every time he is teething and needs a bit of pain relief, because I cant see how else the prescription would help unless it was taken on docs advice everytime. Nursery is happy to give him one dose, but only if the bottle has a sticker on it that was probably printed over a year ago!

Sounds like i give him a lot of calpol writing this. I honestly dont and am a bit obsessive about not over medicating lol!

Thanks for the pharmacy advice, I'll try that if my prescription request is declined and my make shift bodge doesn't work!

We will only give prescribed medicine at the nursery where I work. As a pp said, if they need calpol then they're not well enough to be at nursery (although we only take 2-5 year olds so teething isn't generally an issue). If we had a child with a temperature who appeared unwell we would send them home.

My nursery is happy to give calpol if you've given written permission. They tend to ring me as well. It works fine. Excluding babies for teething or making them be in unnecessary pain seems daft.

We will only give prescribed medicine at the nursery where I work.

And this is where many nurseries have read the SF wrong. It does [did-it's been rewritten] say prescribed medication only but 'prescribed' doesn't mean 'on prescription'. Misunderstanding means many children are missing days in childcare when they need not.

I'm in Scotland and the nursery I work in will allow parents to sign in medicine with times stated to be given. We can't accept it on an if required basis. Anything can only be given for two days on the parents say so then they must see a dr and a prescription written if its required for longer

If my child develops a fever at nursery they ring me for permissiom to give calpol and then give it. I haven't been asked to provide it so it is the nursery's own. When I then do pick up they show me a record of this with a note to say they spoke to me and I sign it for their file.

The policy at my nursery is if children need calpol then they aren't well enough to be there. They will only administer prescribed medicine eg antibiotics after the first 24 hours.

YABU It's a drug and as such should be prescribed if you're expecting anyone other than yourselves to administer it.
I'm a hospice nurse and we deal with massive amounts of morphine, sedatory drugs etc but paracetamol still needs to be prescribed. If I worked as nursery nurse I'd damn well want a prescription before I administered anything to avoid altecrations with batshit parents