People will no longer require a prescription to be Viagra in Irish pharmacies. In the next few weeks, sales of the blue tablet will be sold over the counter.
The 50 mg tablets will be sold in community pharmacies without needing a GP’s prescription. Also, pre-diagnosis of erectile dysfunction by a doctor will not be needed to buy the medication.
Pharmacists will instead assess if the customer is safe to take the tablets. This is a similar method to how strong painkillers are sold.
Pharmacists have also asked people to study up on Viagra, ahead of a huge demand for Pfizer pills.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland have issued a guidance letter, stating than men buying the pills, must be over 18.
A welcomed move:
This move has been welcomed with open arms by the Irish Pharmacy Union.
A spokeswoman for the Union said that buying Viagra from a pharmacy is far safer than buying it online.
She said, “Erectile dysfunction drugs are among the medicines most often bought online. Purchasing them in this way from unregulated sources can pose a major health risk to consumers”.
The spokeswoman continued, “They sometimes contain none of the active ingredient, or sometimes too much or too little of some ingredients, which are also of questionable quality”.
“There are also other risk factors that people may not fully consider when purchasing medication online, including the importance of risk assessments”.
They added, “Your local community pharmacist is a medicines expert. They will ensure that any medicine you get from them is suitable for you and won’t react with any other medications you are taking”.
Good news all round for pharmacies
This comes after it was reported that pharmacists are “likely” to be involved in the rollout of the Covid-19 Vaccine.
The secretary general for the Pharmacy Union is Darragh O’Loughlin. He said, “It now looks likely that the vaccine rollout in pharmacies will commence once supplies of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine are approved and available”.
Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly also said today that all nursing homes including staff and residents, as well as anyone over 70 years of age, will be vaccinated by the end of March.
