Boots to sell Viagra over the counter, but not in Republic

LEGISLATION ON the dispensing of medicines will stop Irish branches of Boots of availing of a pioneering initiative which saw its high-street pharmacies in Britain become the first to sell Viagra over the counter.

Viagra, the anti-impotence drug marketed by the world’s largest drug company Pfizer, is available in Ireland on prescription only.

Dr Ronan Boland, chairman of the Irish Medical Organisation GP committee, said the Irish Medicines Board had adopted a cautious approach to the over-the-counter provision of certain prescription drugs, and he shared their concerns.

“The provision of Viagra on an over-the-counter basis in Britain is part of a pretty liberal licensing regime there which, like anything, has its pros and cons and is open to abuse,” he said.

“There is a huge illicit trade for drugs which target erectile dysfunction. Where people do genuinely suffer with erectile dysfunction, it might be a red flag for an underlying problem, such as diabetes,” he said.

“Measures such as taking bloods and measuring glucose levels, however, are simply not available here.

“Pharmacies as they currently stand in Ireland cannot facilitate detailed patient analysis and assessment.

“Not every pharmacy has a confidential sound-proof room to discuss such sensitive issues in,” he said.

But an Irish Pharmacy Union spokeswoman cautiously welcomed a potential change in legislation which would increase the number of over-the-counter medicines.

“Pharmacists are experts in medicines and are in a position to provide advice to patients on using medicines safely and appropriately,” she said.

Following the success of a trial programme in three of its Manchester branches, Alliance Boots began to sell Viagra, which until then had been prescription only, in 29 branches of its Boots pharmacies last week.

British men who want to buy Viagra must register with a doctor and agree for their doctor to be informed of their participation in the scheme.

Patients complete a pre-screening questionnaire before having a 30-minute consultation with a pharmacist.

The pharmacist will then record the patient’s medical history and conduct a series of tests, including checking their glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels in order to rule out an underlying health problem.

Boots outlets charge £55 (€64.95) for an initial screening and four tablets, with subsequent supplies of four tablets costing £26.59 (€31.40).

The British government has encouraged the direct provision of medicines to consumers in latter years, and has introduced “patient group direction” (PGD) legislation to facilitate this.

A PGD form, signed by a doctor and agreed upon by a pharmacist, acts as a direction to a qualified individual to supply prescription-only medicines to patients using their own assessment of patient need, without the necessity of referring back to a doctor for an individual prescription. buy cialis online washington


“At the moment, as the scheme to provide Viagra as an over-the-counter medicine has moved quickly from an initial trial stage to widespread implementation, we will look to bed that down first before moving on,” said a spokeswoman for Boots.

“Obviously there are different protocols that govern how medicines are supplied in Ireland; in Britain there is a strict patient group direction initiative that allows us to sell drugs like Viagra without a prescription,” she said. generic viagra sildenafil Indiana


Viagra will not be sold over the counter in the North either, because of different protocols.

A little known Christmas fact...

Not long ago and far away, Santa was getting ready for his annual
trip...but there were problems everywhere. Four of his elves were sick,
and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular
ones so Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind
schedule.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her mom was coming to visit. This
stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were
about to give birth and two had jumped the fence and were out, heaven
knows where. More Stress.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the boards cracked and the
toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys.
So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of coffee and a
shot of whiskey. When he went to the cupboard, he found the elves had
hidden the liquor and there was nothing to drink. In his frustration, he
dropped the coffee pot and it broke into hundreds of little pieces all
over the he kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice
had eaten the straw it was made from.

Just then the doorbell rang and Santa cussed on his way to the door. He
opened the door and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas
tree. The angel said: "Where would you like to put this tree Santa?"

And that my friends, is how the little angel came to be on top of the
Christmas tree.

Thought Of the Day!

Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can't eat it or hump it.
Piss on it and walk away.

As

is by now traditional, not actually something that happened to me, but when I was at uni, our wildly out-of-the-way campus was visited by a rugby team from either Oxford or Cambridge, can't remember which now. At the regular Friday night disco in one of the rancid nearby towns, I nipped into the gent's for a jimmy just in time to see one of the visiting rugger buggers shitting in a urinal. Which wasn't exactly the funniest thing in the world ever, at first. But it rapidly became very funny indeed when the urinals picked that precise moment to flush, and he ended up with several pints of water and a number of rapidly-disintegrating stools dumped over his trousers.

A good mate worked as a barmaid/cleaner in the same venue and once found one of the cubicles in the gents liberally smeared with poo... and with a couple of nice firm turds neatly deposited on a sheet of newspaper in the corner.