A third of pharmacies visited in an undercover investigation failed to give important safety warnings about over-the-counter medicines.
Visits to Boots, Tesco, Lloyds Pharmacy, Morrisons and Asda, as well as some independent pharmacies, were all rated “poor” by an expert.
The investigation, which showed a number failing to ask vital questions to patients, comes in the week when NHS England launched a campaign urging patients to see pharmacists, not GPs, when suffering from minor conditions.
The investigation which will appear in the March issue of the consumer magazine Which? found that some pharmacies are failing to give important safety advice to customers buying over-the-counter medicines such as paracetamol and ibuprofen.
Undercover researchers found that the advice given when they tried to buy two medicines that shouldn’t be taken together – was rated ‘poor’ in 11 out of our 36 visits.
In a further scenario, researchers found that some pharmacies were selling large amounts of paracetamol without asking any questions or giving warnings. This is not illegal, but we’ve flagged the visits as needing improvement, as it’s not best practice.
