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Medicine Restrictions, Self-Care and Signposting Policy
+44 (0) 1375 846 316
GBP
Medicine Restrictions, Self-Care and Signposting Policy
At Dock Pharmacy, patient safety and patient education is our top priority. As such we have written the policy below to protect customers from harm and also to ensure the customer is informed about their self-care using OTC products. We also want to ensure customers know when to go to another healthcare professional for investigations around their symptoms.
Our pharmacy medicines are sold online, the order is only released if the pharmacist is satisfied that it is suitable and safe for you to take and our medicines restriction, self-care, and signposting policy is applied.
You may have tried to order a product and received the following message,> you can’t order more than the maximum quantity allowed for that medicine or medicine from that category or you can not buy these medicines together or you recently bought this medicine within the last 30 days.
We track and limit the order and order quantity of the list below of ingredients across our website,
Restricted Ingredients
Codeine/Dihydrocodeine
Paracetamol
Levonorgestrel
Promethazine
Aspirin
Cinnarizine
Pseudoephedrine
Phenylephrine
Ephedrine
Dextromethorphan
Loperamide
Diphenhydramine
Ulipristal Acetate
Dock Pharmacy monitor sales to allow us to reach the below objectives,
To comply with MEP Legal Restrictions for Paracetamol, Codeine, Dihydrocodeine, Aspirin, Pseudoephedrine, Phenylephrine)
To ensure, best safe practice for misused medicines
To ensure patients do not have more medication than they need
Ensuring patients are alerted when they should be signposted to a more appropriate service e.g. their GP or a specialist.
To alert our healthcare team if a customer has a recurring problem that may indicate an underlying health issue.
Certain medicines, including products on the restricted list on our site, have a restriction on the quantity you can purchase. You’ll see a message telling you that you can’t order more than the maximum quantity allowed for that medicine or medicine from that category. ( ie you can not buy more than one product in a specific category)
Usually, medicines that have similar effects on the body cannot be purchased together via our software. E.g. “ Codeine containing products, or Promethazine containing products. If you have purchased one of these products we limit further purchases within a 28 day (or varying days depending on dosage) time frame.
The software either will alert our pharmacist at the time of sale or during our pharmacist check.
We also have varying ingredients that cannot be purchased together that are for different ailments as the risks associated with the two being taken together outweigh the benefits of treating both conditions simultaneously.
E.g. Codeine and Promethazine (Or other antihistamines) containing products cannot be purchased together as their cumulative sedative effects can be dangerous.
Our software will flag up repeat purchases of a particular ingredient. Despite the fact you may be restricted for 30 days if you order a product regularly each month, for example, loperamide for IBS or Chron’s disease this will flag to our healthcare team and we will request to confirm your diagnosis with your own GP. Quite often patients are told by their GP to come to an Online Pharmacy and purchase things such as Loperamide, Phenergan for long-term conditions that are being monitored, as they are cheaper to purchase than to have via NHS prescription. When your GP comes back to us we can supply the medication once the diagnosis s confirmed. You will also be flagged as being approved for Chronic treatment and reminded to speak to your GP regularly. The long-term use of over-the-counter medication can mask an underlying issue.
If our healthcare team feels that your condition would be more suitably treated or investigated face to face they will request that you visit your own GP or another service in your area to ensure you get the correct care.
For services in your area, or information about your condition please visit https://www.nhs.uk/
For information about the medicines you have received please visit https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc
Concerned about yourself or someone having difficulty stopping medicines or medicine misuse? Please visit https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/drug-addiction-getting-help/ or https://www.talktofrank.com/