Silly prices for medecines

[NormanH]

I thought that fish was supposed to make you super intelligent but I

have not noticed any improvement yet or more to the point Mrs Q hasn’t.

Nor has anybody else.....

[6]

[Quillan]

[quote user="NormanH"]I thought that fish was supposed to make you super intelligent but I have not noticed any improvement yet or more to the point Mrs Q hasn’t. [:(] 

Nor has anybody else.....

[6]

[/quote] They don't do much for arthritis either.

[Salty Sam]

Paracetamol! Not the best choice for sending one off to greener pastures quickly.

[url]http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100124371/parecetamol-poisoning-is-a-nasty-way-to-die/[/url]

[Catalpa]

[quote user="Judith"]TESCO will only allow purchase of two packets of (say) paracetamol or

aspirin and when asked why claim ''it is the Law'' - it isn't. It's the

store policy.[/quote]

This may have been mentioned by now (but as per, the forum takes forever to load a new page for me so I'm giving up) but Boots will sell you a tub of 100 x 200mg ibuprofen (my preferred painkiller) if you ask at the pharmacy and they stock them - cost: about a fiver. However, Tesco pharmacy will sell you 96 x 200mg ibuprofen for about half that. Either way, talk to the pharmacist, explain you live abroad and I have, over the past 10 years, had no difficulty in buying large quantities.

[Gardian]

All this lark about 'stocking up' with dope in the UK reminds me that we're going to go through this over the next couple of weeks.

Its only 75gm soluble aspirin. I take one / day, so half a dozen little tubs last me for the year.

I remember being in a Boots a year or two back and asking for 4 tubs. "No more than two" was the stern reply. I took the two from the grumpy old *****.

So I went back to Mrs G, who was furtling around with creams and all that stuff and asked her to go and get me another two tubs.

"You're with that man who I've just refused" came the equally grumpy reply.

"No, he's just some old dribbler who accosted me" she said.  It didn't work.  My dribbling continues.   

[YCCMB]

All this "Health and Safety Gorn Mad!" and "Jobsworth!" stuff that's pouring forth in this thread does rather gloss over a couple of salient points, that come to light as soon as self-interest is just parked to one side.

Firstly, the only reason people seem to need to bulk-buy aspirin in the first place from the UK is that it's expensive in France. There's nothing, apparently, however, to stop you from buying your own bodyweight in aspirin over there, so go right ahead, fill your boots (pardon the pun) in France and stop whining about how hard it is to buy a lifetime's supply for threepence in the UK!

Secondly, why should companies be obliged to compromise their sales policies just for you? Just because you walk up to the counter, an anonymous customer in a busy shop, and swear on a stack of bibles that you're not going to go straight home and down the lot?

What next?

When all is said and done, aspirin is still a drug. Despite the fact that it's an over the counter drug, it still has harmful, and potentially fatal side-effects if misused. Responsible companies have taken measures to try and limit the chances of people misusing aspirin and because it doesn't suit you, you blame them. It's a bit like bringing back the old days when I could go and buy cigarettes for my dad at the age of seven, because the magic words "they're for my dad" were good enough.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Gardian"]

All this lark about 'stocking up' with dope in the UK reminds me that we're going to go through this over the next couple of weeks.

[/quote]

It's not just the drugs either. I have this tendency to bulk buy things that I either see only rarely in the Vendée or which are just expensive. On the same visit a fewyears ago I bought a box of 12 x 1kg jars of molasses which I use in some of the breads I make. I've still got 10 left, occupying valuable cupboard space. At least it doesn't go off.

And the wind of change may be a-blowing: I was in Poitiers for a DELF exam on Thursday and got 20 ibuprofen for single euro in a city centre chemist. They appear to work OK.

[NormanH]

Surely medicines that are really needed will be prescribed by the Doctor in France (they are usually accused of over-prescribing) ?

All I pay is 50 centimes per box since I have ALDs, and that includes paracetamol when I need it, which is rare. It is not just something I have 'hanging about'.

It is also important not to self-medicate without really knowing what you are doing.

As I am on anti-coagulants I can't take aspirin as well, nor ibuprofen which can cause stomach bleeding. I know this because my very helpful local Pharmacist surveys my prescriptions and compares them with what I already take to make sure that there are no likely undesirable inter-reactions.

[Chancer]

I got out my large backpack the other day (I usually travel now with my small one) and saw that I had several packets of Paracetomol there and it made me realise just how dependant I was on it back then, not daily but a migraine could come at any time usually stress or temperature or exertion related or a combination of all of them.

Anyway I had multiple packs in my backpack, my car, the kitchen draw in both properties, my medicine cabinet and like most of you would buy in bulk in the UK for the obvious reason.

I am writing this because for at least 3 years now I have had no need of a painkiller or indeed any other medicament, my medecine cabinet in the bathroom has never been opened and I will dispense with it when I redecorate, everything will now be out of date, I was actually shocked to come across the packets of pills in my backpack that I considered quite normal to have around at all times in case.

What has changed? Just one thing, I lost weight and became fittter, I could add to that healthy eating and no alcohol but its the first two which are responsible.

This thread has reminded me that something we all judge as normal was perhaps not normal to previous generations.

Whether we pay €1 for a couple or £1 for a hundred its something that nowadays for most of us seems to be an essential purchase.

[Loiseau]

I was beginning to worry about forumites' apparent need for quite so many painkillers in the year... ?

Maybe I'm just lucky, but a packet of 12 soluble aspirin would probably see me through a couple of years, unless I had some acute temporary problem.

And presumably those on regular aspirin doses in France could get them prescribed free?

Angela.

[Catalpa]

[quote user="Loiseau"]I was beginning to worry about forumites' apparent

need for quite so many painkillers in the year... [/quote]

[:D] OH took a couple of ibuprofen most work evenings in the couple of years before he had both hips replaced. Say 8 per week, 400-ish per year. In high season when I'm on my feet for about 16 hours a day, I occasionally take a couple because my feet hurt! And yes, in both cases in France, the painkillers could probably have been prescribed "free" but first define free - both to the individual and also to the French health service... a point raised earlier in the thread.

[YCCMB]

[quote user="NormanH"]Surely medicines that are really needed will be prescribed by the Doctor in France (they are usually accused of over-prescribing) ?

It is also important not to self-medicate without really knowing what you are doing.

[/quote]

Of course. But that's precisely why OTC medicines exist. If people had to go and get a prescription every time they had a headache or felt a bit fluey, then there'd be a constant, endless queue outside every doctor's surgery in the country. These are (taken properly) medicines that can be self-administered and are not routinely dispensed on prescription, so people can take them when they (rather than a GP) feel they need them.

There's probably an argument that you should just suffer in silence if you have a bad headache, but why would you, if you can take an aspirin or an ibuprofen?

[Cluzo]

My OH much prefers the Kardesiac  sachets we buy in France as they dissolve instantly . The UK ones  we used to get from or doctors take forever to dissolve .  So we do the opposite to others and stock up when in France for our return to the UK !!!!!!!!

[NormanH]

This is the latest on whether medicines will be allowed to be sold in superarkets:

http://sante.lefigaro.fr/actualite/2013/12/19/21733-medicaments-grande-surface-gouvernement-soutient-pharmaciens