I really like Denmark, it’s very quirky, so this post is really not disparaging. Denmark has its faults but where doesn’t? One thing other expat friends and I laugh about is the supermarket. Especially ones like Netto. Sometimes the shelves are stocked, sometimes they’re not. But what makes you realise you really do live somewhere different is the pharmacy or apotek.
In Australia, we have *very* strict rules about Rx drugs and OTC drugs. At least I thought so, until I came here. In Denmark, a visit to the pharmacy is like a trip through Australian customs. It takes hours of negations to get anywhere. There are just so many drugs you can buy OTC in Australia that you can't buy here and browsing, is most definitely not allowed. Everything is situated *behind* the counter.
You have to be 16 to drink and 18 to smoke (or is it the other way around?) but you certainly can’t buy eye drops if you think you’re getting conjunctivitis as NQDII (who is too much of a medico for his own good) suspected he was.
Nope, you definitely can’t buy slightly antibiotic eye drops OTC. You need to go to the doctor and get a script. Of course, he didn’t have conjunctivitis but he may have and a few drops would have helped fixed it up. But here, regulations rule.
7 comments:
I don't know if it's just the pharmacy next to my apartment or any other pharmacies, but they always try to offer me different drugs / medicines than the ones prescribed by the doctor. They always claim "the content is the same" and I had to argue several times before getting the right medicine.
My sister, who is a pharmacist, told me that it was not permitted. If a pharmacist want to change the medicine (because they don't have it in stock or etc) they would have to call the doctor first and ask.
...however, if you murder someone and you are under 16, you don´t go to jail... and I am pretty sure that beastiality is legal..... interesting paradoxes, huh? :o)
I know! It's ridiculous. I tend to get these really longwinded coughs every year and when I was living in Switzerland, I found these brilliant cough-tablets.
Day-tablets and night-tablets. Of course the night-tablets knocked me out as if hit by a sledge hammer, but they worked. I didn't cough, I slept!
When I got the usual cough here, I went to the pharmacy to ask for these tablets and got a look I guess is usually reserved for hard-core addicts. I then got a pack of completely ineffective tablets that were pulled off the market a couple of days later, because apparently if you take X times recommended dosis it works like ectasy and can kill you.
After 6 weeks of coughing I went to the doctor, but he merely determined it wasn't bacterial and sent me home with nothing.
writer:That practice works in Australia too. The reason behind it is once the patent of an Rx drug has finished, other companies can make a version - usually at a cheaper price. I think different countries have their own rules about it.
kelli: They sure are!
May: I'm sorry but you did give me a laugh at your own misfortune! :) But you're right, it's very frustrating and surely by the time we see the doctor a gazillion times for scripts for simple things, it can't be that cost-effective for the State.
It wasn't just ordinary drug that I bought. It was a birth control - there I say it - LOL The reason I got a new brand is because I had problems with the old one and since it all depends on hormones, I was keen to try the new brand the doctor gave me, and this pharmacist just insisted that the one he gave me was equally better.
I had to argue with him to get the one prescribed by the doctor instead. I don't get how difficult it can be, when the doctor writes A then they should give me that A, right? Instead of B or C?
the writer: as NQD mentioned, it does vary from country to country. The pharmacies in Denmark are, by law I believe, obliged to offer you the currently cheapest product on the market with the exact same content.
Of course it's up to you if you want the cheaper brand or not. If you're in doubt about content, your doctor should be able to confirm them.
I know exactly what you mean! I'm an American living in Jylland. There's nothing more frustrating than the apotek. I miss the option of just buying ibuprofen when you need it! What do you mean, I have to buy it at an actual pharmacy? :)
...It is 16 to drink, 18 to smoke. Crazy. But that's a discussion for another time....
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