Key Post The Chemist Warehouse half the price of Healthwave!

L

Louis

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I switched to Healthwave some years ago and they were about 60% of the price of my local pharmacy.

Someone told me to check the The Chemist Warehouse and I was really shocked to find that they were less than half the price of Healtwave. Their website looks like a scam website and they don't deliver, but it's a huge price difference.

The Chemist Warehouse: €14.46
Pure Pharmacy : €27.38
Healthwave: €32.75

The service from all three was poor enough.

I rang Healthwave to discuss the prices to see if there was some error. I couldn't get through. When I emailed them, they told me that they don't discuss their competitors' prices.

I submitted my prescription to Pure online and they never replied. When I called them, they gave me the prices quickly over the phone.

The Chemist Warehouse took half an hour to fill the prescription and then when I came back, they hadn't got one of them in stock. It took them 15 minutes to adjust the prescription and recalculate the price. They had charged me for it and wanted me to come back tomorrow, but that does not suit me. They are not convenient to where I live. Then they gave me no receipt as their printer was broken.

Louis.
 
Discussed here as well:

Healthcare costs - not insurance - Cost of medicines - shop around

a while ago, I was prescribed statins (20mg). I specified generic as opposed to proprietary. Generic cost €17.00 per 28 days, as opposed to €23.00 for the proprietary supplier. recently my son got my renewal prescription and went to the nearest pharmacy ie different provider, lo & behold, the...
www.askaboutmoney.com

Anyone with enough knowledge to do a Key Post?

The other thread suggests buying 6 months at a time is cheaper, but I am not sure why?

Brendan
 
I get my meds from Chemist Warehouse.
They are by far the cheapest for what I get.
E.g. €8 per month versus €20 p.m. that I was previously paying with the local pharmacy (and which, even then, was far from the most expensive) for two statins that I'm on.
I've never had any problems with them bar the usual silly wait while the pharmacist foosters around in the dispensary for 20 minutes or so before producing the goods.
But that's what I've experienced with every other pharmacy that I've ever dealt with so they're far from unique in that respect.
In my experience getting one month or 6 months at a time makes no difference to the total price (assuming that the drug price itself doesn't fluctuate).
 
Chemist Warehouse are huge in Australia. The garish Mr Price style layout and colour scheme necessitates headache tablets by the time you get to the till

Looks like they will be launching online soon as their site is in testing https://uat.chemistwarehouse.ie/homepage

Like any business, there can be weird discrepancies in price. They may be able to grey import the particular item and some other items which reduces prices
 
peemac said:
They may be able to grey import the particular item and some other items which reduces prices
Click to expand...
What does this mean? Thanks.

BTW, no matter what meds I was checking (not all for me! ) they were by far the cheapest.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
The other thread suggests buying 6 months at a time is cheaper, but I am not sure why?
Click to expand...

ClubMan said:
In my experience getting one month or 6 months at a time makes no difference to the total price (assuming that the drug price itself doesn't fluctuate).
Click to expand...

A pharmacist told me some years ago that there is a charge for reading the prescription and that is why it is cheaper to buy the 6 months medicines in one go as the prescription only had to be read once by the pharmacist.

Tesco told me at one stage that they were not allowed dispense 6 months in one go and were issuing 3 months supply when they could get them, as supply became a problem during Covid. Quite often they only issued 1 months supply despite the fact that Pure were still able to give/supply the 6 months
 
Apologies, it's a while since I got 6 months in one go and 3 months seems to be the max these days. But the point still stands. Whether I get one or three months at a time, the total price is the same. And not just with Chemist Warehouse. It was the same with my local pharmacy.
 
@ClubMan

Perhaps that 'reading the prescription' charge has been scrapped of late.

Obviously if anyone is on the Drug Payment Scheme their medicines will only be supplied one month at a time too.
 
Sue Ellen said:
Obviously if anyone is on the Drug Payment Scheme their medicines will only be supplied one month at a time too.
Click to expand...

I hate when people use the word "obviously". I always know that it will be anything but obvious to me.

Why does the DPS only supply one month at a time?
 
Sue Ellen said:
A pharmacist told me some years ago that there is a charge for reading the prescription and that is why it is cheaper to buy the 6 months medicines in one go as the prescription only had to be read once by the pharmacist.
Click to expand...
That reading prescription charge is never itemised on receipts and maybe it should be.

I suspect that by law some drugs may only be sold in certain quantities for safety or other reasons.
 
Páid said:
That reading prescription charge is never itemised on receipts and maybe it should be.
Click to expand...
In my case I get two statins.
One costs €4.99 and the other costs €2.99.
I pay €7.98 for a month's supply.
There is no other charge.
I never recall paying more than the price of the individual meds with any pharmacy.
Páid said:
I suspect that by law some drugs may only be sold in certain quantities for safety or other reasons.
Click to expand...
This seems dumb for meds that some people will be on indefinitely or for life (statins, blood pressure meds etc) and which would be very difficult to OD on.
 
Páid said:
That reading prescription charge is never itemised on receipts and maybe it should be.
Click to expand...

So, how does it work?

€20 for the drugs and €3 dispensing charge, just shown as €23

And if you order two months, it's €43?

Brendan
 
Pubs are required to display prices - presumably for the most popular items.

Maybe pharmacies should be obliged to display prices for 20 commonly prescribed products.

Or maybe put up 100 products on a website somewhere?

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
And if you order two months, it's €43?
Click to expand...

That was the impression I got from the pharmacist. However, when I look at rum and black's post in that previous thread that you refer to above there appears to be quite a difference = €123 (€20.51 per month) and then €90 for six months! Do that over a few prescriptions per month and it adds up. With the recent increases on so many things and lack of availability of quite a number of drugs the difference has probably increased too.

Major variation in pharmacy prices
 
As I said, in my case (for years now with different pharmacies, but, most recently, Chemist Warehouse) where the list price of my meds was €x, then that's the total that I've paid. No additional or hidden charges. Unless any additional charges are already factored into all prescription med list prices or something.

For example, Chemist Warehouse have a published pricelist with my statins at €4.99 and €2.99 and that (€7.98) is the full amount that I pay for a month's supply. Nothing more. And three months' supply costs exactly the same whether I get it one month at a time or in one three month batch.

Notwithstanding Brendan's unfortunately chaotic customer experience, I would strongly recommend Chemist Warehouse particularly for their extremely competitive prices for most prescription meds. But, as ever, shop/price around for your specific needs and some people may value other things (e.g. delivery, branded versus generic, etc.) over price alone.
 
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@ClubMan

Would be interested to see a copy of that published price list. Just tried Google but got a copy of that garish brochure which did not appear to include statins price list
 
For some reason their latest brochure is all perfumes and other stuff. It usually also includes prescription med prices. Try emailing/contacting them and asking for a prescription med price list. I did that in the past when they didn't even have an Irish website. They also have printed copies in store but there are only three stores (Henry Street, Blanchardstown and Dun Laoghaire). I don't think that I have a hardcopy myself that I could check specific prices for you, sorry.
 

I suspect that it's just an excuse by some pharmacies. Buying 6 months at a time was much cheaper than buying 1 month at a time. I would always prefer to just do one trip to the chemist rather than six. Also, pretty often the prescription would have expired (six months after date of issue) by the time I was getting the final month.

Brendan Burgess said:
So, how does it work?

€20 for the drugs and €3 dispensing charge, just shown as €23

And if you order two months, it's €43?

Brendan
Click to expand...

I picked up a prescription in a non-native pharmacy chain once for a relative and they gave me some generic medicine instead of what was on the prescription (but didn't mention this to me). When I checked the bag I raised the issue with the counter assistant and said that they had given me the wrong medicine. A discussion ensued and I cannot remember exactly how we got on to talking about the prescription charge but I remember she couldn't tell me how much it was or how much the generic medicine was either. I don't know if they charge the prescription charge every time or just for the initial reading of the script. She also admitted that they had a policy of only dispensing 3 months at a time (for any medicine).
 
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