Pharmacy pricing

Carawaystick

Saw a thread elsewhere about boots the chemist charging a dispensing fee per month of the drug they were dispensing and the cost of the drug.
So I wondered about buying drugs in chemists.

You go into a chemist and hand in a script, the pharmacist packages up the drugs and does up a docket and all and then says "that costs Y"

Can you then decide not to buy the drugs, as they may be too dear and get the script back to shop elsewhere?

godtabh

Or ask for a quote before purchase

coylemj

Hand them the prescription and say 'I don't have much cash on me, can you tell me how much this will cost?' and they'll quickly tell you. No harm done if you don't like the price, just say that you'll come back later and you haven't offended anyone.

WTF has this got to do with the law? Are you afraid you'll be arrested for asking a chemist for the price of prescription drugs?

Carawaystick

coylemj wrote: »

WTF has this got to do with the law? Are you afraid you'll be arrested for asking a chemist for the price of prescription drugs?

S.I. No. 639/2002 states the selling price and unit price of a good should be unambiguous, clearly visible to a prospective customer. So there should be no reason for a prospective customer to ask in advance, it should be displayed.

I guess my points were:
Are customers buying from a pharmacy consumers like in other shop situations?
Are there separate laws above the normal consumer protection laws for pharmacies?

Is a binding contract entered into by presenting a prescription, without knowledge of the price?
Can a customer decline to buy drugs after they have been dispensed and are in a state that the pharmacist cannot resell them. e.g. a powder antibiotic had been made up with water, and may not be sold to another customer within its fortnight shelf life?

Has a customer a right to the prescription, written by the doctor, back from the pharmacist, when they don't purchase the drugs




In an completely off topic aside. Are solicitor/client services always non-consumer services, or do normal consumer protections apply?

Nonoperational

Wouldn't it be so much easier to ask how much it will cost and then decide if you want to go ahead? There's no need to prance around it, just ask straight out how much it will cost.

If you don't get it dispensed yes you can of course get the script back.

Carawaystick

Nonoperational wrote: »

Wouldn't it be so much easier to ask how much it will cost and then decide if you want to go ahead? There's no need to prance around it, just ask straight out how much it will cost.

If you don't get it dispensed yes you can of course get the script back.

Either it's the law the price should be displayed, or some other law applies.

it'd be so much easier if the price was displayed.
All non-prescription drugs have their price displayed. I just want to know if there's some law excusing pharmacists (and lawyers) from the normal consumer protection laws.

Stheno

Carawaystick wrote: »

Either it's the law the price should be displayed, or some other law applies.

it'd be so much easier if the price was displayed.
All non-prescription drugs have their price displayed. I just want to know if there's some law excusing pharmacists (and lawyers) from the normal consumer protection laws.

Doesn't seem to be one compelling them to display them going by

The National Consumer Agency is pressing for greater price transparency in the sector, in line with an Economic and Social Research Institute recommendation earlier this year that there should be in-store displays on prices and rebates.l

from an article in the Times earlier this year.

Given the sheer volume of drugs pharmacies dispense I'd imagine it would be challenging enough to agree a format for display of prices.

Carawaystick

Stheno wrote: »

Doesn't seem to be one compelling them to display them going by

from an article in the Times earlier this year.

Given the sheer volume of drugs pharmacies dispense I'd imagine it would be challenging enough to agree a format for display of prices.

does an article in the IT overrule a SI?

GullibleOne

Carawaystick wrote: »

S.I. No. 639/2002 states the selling price and unit price of a good should be unambiguous, clearly visible to a prospective customer. So there should be no reason for a prospective customer to ask in advance, it should be displayed.

I guess my points were:
Are customers buying from a pharmacy consumers like in other shop situations?
Are there separate laws above the normal consumer protection laws for pharmacies?

Is a binding contract entered into by presenting a prescription, without knowledge of the price?
Can a customer decline to buy drugs after they have been dispensed and are in a state that the pharmacist cannot resell them. e.g. a powder antibiotic had been made up with water, and may not be sold to another customer within its fortnight shelf life?

Has a customer a right to the prescription, written by the doctor, back from the pharmacist, when they don't purchase the drugs




In an completely off topic aside. Are solicitor/client services always non-consumer services, or do normal consumer protections apply?

I was in a chemist recently where a man had a prescription for 18 products. when the pharmacist had it all wrapped up and asked him for the 9 euros he refused to pay it and walked out with a few choice words about what the chemist was. I got the impression he did not know there was a 50 cent charge on each item and may not have had any money on him

Nonoperational

There's hundreds of products stacked into shelves in a pretty small place that the public cannot enter. Don't see how it's possible to display the prices near each item. Also with the way the PCRS have reorganised the fees paid, DPS items can have different prices depending on the time of the month/year they're dispensed.

coylemj

Carawaystick wrote: »

it'd be so much easier if the price was displayed.
All non-prescription drugs have their price displayed. I just want to know if there's some law excusing pharmacists (and lawyers) from the normal consumer protection laws.

As far as I'm aware there is no obligation on pharmacies to display the prices of their prescription drugs. Even publicans are only obliged to display some prices. They don't, for example, have to display the prices of every oddball brand of spirits on the shelves.

Carawaystick wrote: »

Either it's the law the price should be displayed, or some other law applies.

'Or some other law applies', what's that supposed to mean?

Show them the prescription and ask 'how much?' and stop wasting our time asking pointless questions.

Greenmachine

Perhaps there should be touch screens in the pharmacy that consumers can consult.
Perhaps QR barcode that can be read from a terminal in the pharmacy. I have wonder myself about how pharmacies were able to get away with this. There certainly should not be any difficulty in display their dispensing fees.

coylemj

It would be next to impossible to devise a consumer-friendly way to show prices for prescription drugs. You have the issue of the same drug being available in different dosages, then there is generic v. proprietary and that's even assuming that the customer can read the doctor's handwriting and decipher the abbreviations that the medical profession uses for specifying the frequency at which they need to be taken.