Children's safety put at risk from medicine ruling
Children’s safety may be put at risk when over the counter cough and cold medicines become less available for parents.
The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) has advised on improvements for safe use of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for children of ages six to twelve.
The medicines will only be available from the UK’s 10,000 pharmacies rather than the 102,000 UK shops and supermarkets currently allowed to stock them.
This could make them up to 90 per cent less readily available for parents with children who become suddenly ill out of opening hours.
The cut in availability is being done to make sure parents obtain correct advice on how the over-the-counter cough and cold medicines should be administered rather than reading the instructions on the packets.
This may have serious implications for people in rural communities.
In areas such as North Somerset, many rural communities do not even have a local supermarket or a store let alone a pharmacy.
Emma Leaves, from Wraxall said: “Although I try to be prepared with bottles of infant paracetamol or the like, occasionally I have been caught out. There is a pharmacy in neighbouring Nailsea, but they are open from nine until five, and then not on a Sunday. There is a Boots too, but there have been a few times I have gone to Boots to find it closed as they have no pharmacist in and can’t open without one.
“In Wraxall there is a garage with a small supermarket, so in these instances it has been a life saver. If I couldn’t get medicine from there I know I would be stuck, and the buses in rural communities aren’t very good. That would be great late at night when buses are every hour and a half, and even then I could get on one that would get me to an open pharmacist. Parents ought to be given some credit, we have been raising children for centuries.”
Parents with ill children may have no option but to take their child to the accident and emergency centre for a prescription, leading to even longer waiting times and over stretching services.
Higher concern is being expressed that parents unable to access pharmacies and 24 hour supermarkets may decide to administer smaller doses of their own medication to provide relief.
Currently, statistics show that there is only one traditional pharmacy for 6,000 people.
Chopsy Baby went to one well-known national pharmacy chain. When putting in the Wraxall postcode for Emma we found the nearest one was 3.54 miles away and was not accessible on foot or by bus. The opening hours were 8.45 am until 6.30 pm on a weekday, 9.00 am until 13.00 pm on a Saturday, and closed all day Sunday.
Concern regarding the new advice is also being voiced within the medicine
manufacturing industry.
Bells Healthcare, have been manufacturing tried and tested over the counter cough ad cold remedies for more than 100 years. Managing Director Ken Wells said: “The decision taken was the result of a Canadian study on children’s medicines and the retail conditions between Canada and the UK are totally different. Ironically the implementation of General Sales Licence (GSL) on children’s medicines was introduced to stop parents giving adult medicines to children. We have already had numerous customers contact us totally confused by the reports issued over the weekend.”