While waiting at Heathrow for our flight home from London, my mother in law Irene, recalling the turbulence on our ride over, decided to get herself something for motion sickness. Off we headed to the airport pharmacy, where we discovered that motion sickness drugs are sold behind the counter in the UK, along with cough and cold syrup, paracematol (Tylenol) and many other drugs that we Yanks can scoop up freely from the pharmacy shelves here in the USA.
Upon questioning Irene about her health and other medications she was taking, the cheerful and helpful pharmacy tech called over the pharmacist, who firmly but politely refused to sell her the drug due to concerns about the potential to worsen her glaucoma. Irene was a bit taken aback, since her eye doctor had told her she could use the meds. But, having no local doc to override the pharmacist, we accepted the pharmacist’s verdict. Thankfully, our plane ride home was smooth sailing.
Overall, I was quite impressed with the caring attitude of the pharmacy tech and the pharmacist, as well as the seriousness with which they took their jobs. The risks of over the counter drugs may seem minimal, but not everyone takes the time (or has the corrected vision) to read the package labeling and warnings. Having someone vet your purchase for you could be potentially life saving.
I asked the pharmacist how the morning after pill is handled in the UK – turns out women requesting the med see him in his office for a private consultation prior to getting the drug, which has no age restriction. Not a bad idea, I think. Maybe we need to expand our behind the counter system in the US.
Then I think about the right to life pharmacists.
And change my mind.
MAP is freely available all over the UK most particularly at the numerous Minor Injury/Illness Units which are all over the country;all are “Walk-In” services are free to use although some patients have to pay for the MAP. In my area patients can get it from the walk In centre where I work and where we see 3-4 patients a day (out of ave 140 patients);they can also get it from ED at the local hospitals and from the Womens health clinic.There are problems here as well with Pharmacists refusing to give it out on moral/ethical/religious grounds.My feeling is, is that if you want it then I’m happy to give it to you irrespective of your age….if you are 14 and having sex I really don’t want you to have a baby.
Tim-
Good to hear it. I like your viewpoint on teen pregnancy – I happen to share it.
Peggy
Very interesting perspective, and in addition to better supervision of OTC meds, I think pharmacist guidance on herbal and complementary treatments would be helpful, since it seem this sort of wisdom can only be gleaned from the strange guy with piercings at Whole Foods 🙂
DrCharles –
That’s a great idea. Imagine if those who sold herbal treatments actually knew what they were selling.
But it’s a multi billion dollar industry with tons of lobbyists who will never let Congress grant the FDA oversight over it.
God bless America.
Peggy
Actually, the industry DOES know what it’s selling. They just don’t care. And due to the liberal application of money by the aforementioned lobbyists, Congress doesn’t care either.
Hi,
I’m an aspiring medic from the UK and it’s good to hear people admiring our system, you could have it too if you’d stuck with the old monarchy thing 😀
With the right to life pharmacists, i hadn’t heard of that and it seems pretty crazy, i’m not sure you’re allowed to do that kinda thing in the NHS, i think we’re lucky enough to have less of that kinda stuff anyway.
Thanks for the post
H
I’ve had great success combating motion sickness with those elastic wrist bands with a button that put pressure on some point on your wrist….