Chemist Warehouse

zell12

offering up to 70% commonly used prescription meds, including Sildenafil 4 tablets €2.99

Page 12 https://www.chemistwarehouse.ie/catalogues/CWH%20Ireland%20January%202025%20Catalogue.pdf

rob316

The customer experience vs my old local chemist is worlds apart, its really all over the place but the price can't be argued. My generic meds there are €23 for 3 months, its was €26 per month in my local.

walshb

Unreal. 100 mls eau de toilette Calvin Klein Be for 20 Euro

_BAA_RAM_EWE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123055415#Comment_123055415

poor locals are struggling, one will be along in a minute with their woes. worse than farmers

blah blah blah

johnnykilo

Healthwave might also be worth a look. I had been using Pure Pharmacy for years as there was a thread on them here previously, but my most recent 6 month prescription has now gone to €48 with them, versus €18 with Chemist Warehouse (going by the brochure above) or €23 with Healthwave.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058388599/chemist-warehouse

I don't need sildenafil.

zell12

meh

Klingon Hamlet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123055415#Comment_123055415

Have you tried asking your local to provide all 3 months in one go, that can save a lot of money.

Lester_Burnham

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123057977#Comment_123057977

That wouldn't save any money in my local. I'd just pay for 3 months instead of one?

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123058077#Comment_123058077

Depends on how they charge the 'dispensing fee'. You might be charged only one if you can get 3 months at a time rather than being hit with one each month.

GAAcailin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123058089#Comment_123058089

my local pharmacy used to charge me €48 for 3 months supply of my meds; recently I got 3 months filled and was being charged €87; I questioned it and was told that the pharmacy was now charging a dispensing fee per item; I had just being charged 1 dispensing fee for the 3 items; she said it didn't make a difference (except a euro or two) if the items were under the DPS scheme or not. I can get the same meds in Healthwave for €32 for 3 months. Told the pharmacist and she said she'd give me €10 off. Didn't take her hand off and went to healthwave the next time.

I like supporting my local chemist but that price difference is outrageous. Healthwave is a bit away from me in Dundrum, the parking is awkward and they are only open Monday- Friday 9 office hours, they also close for lunch. I know if we were e.g. going on holidays and I needed something last minute it would be awkward.

reubenreuben

All the same drugs, why the big price discrepancy?

_BAA_RAM_EWE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123058298#Comment_123058298

profit

Esse85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123058298#Comment_123058298

Greed

witchgirl26

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123058445#Comment_123058445

It's not greed. If you actually know the accounting in a pharmacy, they make very little off prescriptions in general. Between the long term illness scheme & the DPS, the only scripts they make any kind of profit off are private ones & even then the profit margin is tiny.

Pharmacies make money off things that are sold in the shop part & things like paracetamol (the generic one that's only €1.99 has a higher margin than most of the prescription drugs). And pharmacies do need to make money in order to pay for the staff who work there. The reason bigger chains can potentially charge less is down to the buying power they have as a larger purchaser with a supplier whereas smaller businesses who don't purchase as much on a monthly or yearly basis, do not have the same power to get discounts or rebates.

Lester_Burnham

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123058089#Comment_123058089

They don't charge a dispensing fee so no advantage to buying in bulk.

My doctor is already ripping me off by charging for the repeat prescription and refusing to give one for longer than 3 months at a time. This for meds that likely will never change.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123057805#Comment_123057805

Do they stock all meds or only the ones that they obtain a wholesaler discount on?

Esse85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123058944#Comment_123058944

I believe they rip people off and justify it by assuming the government will pay the majority of the prescriptions for those on GP cards and assuming people on health insurance can claim back parts of the fee.

This is my hunch, you sound like you're an expert, feel free to educate me.

rob316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123057977#Comment_123057977

My last prescription in my local before I switched was €126 for 6 months, all at once. Doesn't make any difference. Its a huge difference in price

witchgirl26

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123059088#Comment_123059088

I'm not an expert by any stretch but I've worked in a pharmacy (not a pharmacist) so I've seen the margins & the accounts as well. They aren't exactly rolling in money. They don't get to charge whatever they want for any government funded schemes (long term illness or DPS being the most common) as they'll only be refunded a certain amount & can be questioned if there's a large discrepancy between standard price & price charged. They are not allowed to add dispensing fees to these prescriptions. The DPS for an individual or family is capped at €80 a month so they're not ripping off the customer. Anyone can sign up for the DPS. And it can take up to 2 months to get the money back from the government. So prescriptions are actually the least profitable part of the business.

Like I said, the money is made in the shop part. On a pack of paracetamol that costs only €1.99 for the generic, the margin could be up to €1. Why do you think it is that all chemists have a large shopfront? It's because they need that in order to be able to make the business viable. You come in for your prescription & the hope is that you pick up some other bits which is what actually makes them the money.

As someone who gets a prescription on a monthly basis & sometimes from different pharmacies, the price between my DPS one & a private script in a different chemist varies only by about €1-€2 at most. So if we take that difference as the dispensing fee being integrated into the dispensing fee it's not too bad at all. In the UK there's a fee of £9.90 per item on your prescription. On a medical card here, per the HSE, the dispensing fee per item is €1.50 up to a maximum of €15 per month if you're under 70. If you're over 70, it's €1 up to a maximum of €10 per month. And as the pharmacists aren't the ones prescribing the drugs, they don't really have a say in who has what so it's an unstable revenue stream.

Gary_dunne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123059095#Comment_123059095

Have you joined the Drug Payment Scheme? Caps your prescription's at €80 a month and your whole family can be on the same card. Free to join and not means tested in anyway.

GAAcailin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123061643#Comment_123061643

You can only use the DPS for a months supply at a time, so in the case of 'rob316' if a months' supply costs €25; he cannot bucket 6 months supply together and use this against one calendar month on the DPS; i.e. he cannot pay €80 for €125 worth of drugs in a given month that is a six month supply. He and his family would have to have other prescription drug expenses to offset against the €80.

Gary_dunne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123062893#Comment_123062893

My pharmacist gives me my 3 month prescription on each visit for my psoriasis Enstillar cans, only ever charges me €80.

rob316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123061643#Comment_123061643

Ya thats per month of your prescription. You can't get a 6 month supply over 1 month of the drug payment scheme.

Gary_dunne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123062977#Comment_123062977

Well don't tell my pharmacist, I get my 3 month prescription for €80. Only have to go 4 times a year, €320 last year in total for 12 months worth of Enstilar.

GAAcailin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123062984#Comment_123062984

it depends how the GP writes the script. If your GP gives you a script that states ‘3 tubes of X cream and use as directed’ (in doctors notation) the pharmacist can do what they are doing for you.

If the GP script reads ‘one tube per month repeat X 2’ (in doctors notation) then the pharmacist shouldn’t dispense 3 months supply at once.

Had a situation before where my DD needed 2 ventolin inhalers at one time (one to leave in school) and the Gp wrote a script that indicated to the pharmacy to issue 2 at once. Normally we get a script that has a ‘repeat X 5’

Gary_dunne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123063462#Comment_123063462

Mines all done through the Laya online GP portal, they seem to basically give you anything you ask for, I use one can a month, she asked did I want more.

Thankfully no GP visits required as mine is impossible to get appointments with.

Treppen

Have to say , I got a bucket load of perfumes for presents in there, way cheaper than anywhere else. Brittany Spears EDPs, Mont Blanc, Marc Jacobs, Theires Hermes.

Surprised they have no online.

OmegaGene

I went to the shop in mallow and couldn’t believe the range of products there and the low prices, we picked up loads of gift sets for Christmas and the protein powder wasn’t too bad price wise either

_BAA_RAM_EWE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123065210#Comment_123065210

my dad bought a couple of taps awhile back and went back to get a few more just to have as they were a great price he thought.

They had quadrupled in price. turned out they sold them to him at cost price by mistake.

The greed here is off the scales.

zell12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123065478#Comment_123065478

Well there is the 23% vat