Price of Inhalers?

_Roz_

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to find the cost of Brown (Beclomethasone) and Blue (Salbutamol) asthma inhalers and am finding it really difficult to pin them down. I know blue ones are usually in or around €10 aren't they? But this will be my first time getting a controller/preventative inhaler and I have no idea what to expect in terms of cost per inhaler.

The reason I'm asking here rather than just going to a chemist is I got the prescrip from Lloyd's Online Doctor and it will take a few days to get here - I'm trying to budget my money between now and payday and it would be super useful to have accurate med costs to factor into this as soon as possible, rather than waiting til I go to the chemist next week.

Thanks!

locum-motion

I'm afraid there's no simple answer to your question.
Firstly, no one can quote you a price until they know precisely which inhaler they have to quote for.
Secondly, there's no 'set price'. Once you have the prescription, contact a few of your local pharmacies and ask. However, DO NOT be surprised if the pharmacist wants to SEE the prescription themselves BEFORE they quote. The general public are very good at mis-reading prescriptions, and every pharmacist will have seen multiple cases in their careers of someone who SAYS that their prescription is for x, but when the pharmacist looks at it, it's for y.
I for one will not quote a price over the phone for exactly that reason.

_Roz_

Okay, thank you. Worst comes to worst I'll borrow a few quid for the prescrip til payday.

Wyldwood

Have a read through this HSE document available online, it will give you a guideline for budgeting if you know what strength inhaler you've been prescribed.

http://hse.ie/eng/about/Who/clinical/natclinprog/medicinemanagementprogramme/yourmedicines/prescribingtips/asthma%20medicines.pdf

jimmynokia

These inhalers vary massively in Ireland around the country..
For the Blue one from 5 -12 euro and the Brown one its anything from 20 -30 euro..been a preventer its more costly

There is however a substitute to the Blue one called Salamol which is a generic and cheaper,you would be best looking up north or getting prices from chemists up towards the north due to many NI/UK operating in the area,especially the likes of cavan.

_Roz_

Thanks everyone - for reference in case the information is of use to anyone else - I got my inhalers today. Chemist defaulted to giving me the generic versions of both rather than brand name, these included Salamol which was a tenner and she didn't have the generic brown one so she gave me Becotide which was 18.50 approx. The generic one I'll be getting in future is about 16. Both my inhalers are low dosage 100 microgram inhalers.