Pharmacy dispensing charge... did you know?

deisemum

If you have a perscription for 3 months of whatever tablets can you get the 3 months worth in the one go and only pay 1 dispensing fee or have you to get them monthly?

Nonoperational

Depends on the tablets. PM me if you want.

deisemum

If there was only a small difference in price between a local pharmacy and one of a chain I'd prefer to pay the couple of euro extra for the convenience as well as having built up a relationship with my local pharmacist who would have better knowledge of my medical history.

One thing I've found is that my local pharmacist is very thorough and will spend more time going through how the medication is to be taken than just the brief run through from other pharmacies that I would have used on the odd occasion. If needs be he will also phone up to remind me when a repeat of something is due.

Good service and convenience even if it costs a slight bit more than a chain is what encourages loyalty from me.

If there was a huge difference then I'd have to rethink things.

ebixa82

Xterminator wrote: »

you just dont get it. Even shopping around is made as difficult as possible.

they dont advertise their prices/markups in the store.

they dont tell you the cost till prescription is being handed over.

they dont tell you if there is a generic drug subsitute for your prescribed branded one. i believe this is because they make a bigger profit from more expensive brands.

they charge private patients a different fee that medical card ones for providing the same service.

Why would they advertise? There are 1000s of drugs in any dispensary, do you want the price of each individual medicine?

They don't tell you the price if you don't ask. If you saw a pair of shoes that had no price on them would you just go up and buy them and then bitch after you hand over your cash?

Pharmacists are not allowed switch branded drugs for generics unless the Dr has specifically stated they can do so on the script. And just so you know Pharmacies get much greater discounts when buying generics so it would be more profitable to dispense generics even if they are actually cheaper for the consumer.

They charge medical card patients 50c per item per month. There is no mark up on these. They get paid a fee of between 3-5e from the government and that is all. For this reason they have to charge a mark up on private scripts to cover this.

No matter how much cosmetics and toiletries a pharmacy sell the majority of their income relies on script trade.

So why do they need to charge a mark up on scripts? To help them pay the salaries of the pharmacist and all other members of staff, to pay rates, ESB, rent, insurance, water charges.

When you go into McDonalds would you expect them to provide a breakdown of the cost of the burger, bun, sauce, cheese?

If you are not happy with the price go to another pharmacy, you don't have to pay if you don't want to. Bitching about it after you leave the shop won't do you any good.

Irishsnake

Can someone explain to me who are standing up for chemists how my Girlfriend paid 96cents for a week of amoxicillin antibotic in lanzorate and when i had to get same in ireland it cost over 18 euro ??? if only they would ONLY mark up by 300 to 400%

Motorist

Irishsnake wrote: »

Can someone explain to me who are standing up for chemists how my Girlfriend paid 96cents for a week of amoxicillin antibotic in lanzorate and when i had to get same in ireland it cost over 18 euro ??? if only they would ONLY mark up by 300 to 400%

I got a week's supply amoxicillin for 7 euro something last week in Galway.

angeldelight

Irishsnake wrote: »

Can someone explain to me who are standing up for chemists how my Girlfriend paid 96cents for a week of amoxicillin antibotic in lanzorate and when i had to get same in ireland it cost over 18 euro ??? if only they would ONLY mark up by 300 to 400%

I seriously cannot fathom how a week of amoxicillin could be anywhere near 18 euro. It certainly wouldn't be anywhere I work...

It's been answered tons of times before, the reason prices are lower in some other European countries is due to the manufacturers there selling their drugs at a much much lower cost price. The other countries have much bigger populations so they sell more of each drug and still make their money. Ireland is so small relatively speaking that to make it worth their while being in the market at all they have to charge more. Spanish/French/Portuguese pharmacists aren't charities - they have mark ups and fees too but when applied to a lower cost price obviously the end result is a lower total price for the patient. That's why, but if you want to believe that pharmacists have markups of 400% and exist purely to rip you off then do.

kdowling

Irishsnake wrote: »

if only they would ONLY mark up by 300 to 400%

I can see you are new to boards but you shouldn't make statements like that when you clearly don't have a clue what you are talking about and have no idea of the pricing structure.

I'll make it simply for you.
The pharmacists in spain can buy the antibiotics from the manufactures for a very cheap price.
The pharmacists in ireland are charged more by the manufacturer as we are a smaller country.

ceegee

Irishsnake wrote: »

Can someone explain to me who are standing up for chemists how my Girlfriend paid 96cents for a week of amoxicillin antibotic in lanzorate and when i had to get same in ireland it cost over 18 euro ??? if only they would ONLY mark up by 300 to 400%

Where the hell did you pay that? Dont know of any pharmacy (have worked in at least 50) that would be over a tenner. And none of those could get a weeks supply at that price even if they paid no markup

Irishsnake

Oops sorry it was over 8 euro which i suppose adds up to a 400% mark up along with a 5euro charge

JTMan

Can anyone recommend, as a general rule, a particular low cost pharmacy in Dublin city? Thanks.

kdowling

Irishsnake wrote: »

Oops sorry it was over 8 euro which i suppose adds up to a 400% mark up along with a 5euro charge

Would you mind showing us how you calculated that mark-up genius?