Depends And Lloyds Pharmacy Questions

[Sigma117]

Right, I've more or less narrowed down what I'm going to buy to this http://www.lloydspha...-s-m-x-18-14070 (Though that's not set if you could recommend anything better ^^")

Just wondering if anyone knows how big the pack is ( I'd like to put it in my backpack for obvious reasons) and I'm also curious if to know if anyone has had any good/bad experiences with the store in question.

Also, general advice and such for a first time buy would be nice but that's not the main part of the thread~

[Yipyap]

These would be waaaay better;

http://www.lloydspharmacy.com/en/tena-flex-super-medium-11634

[Sigma117]

Can you get them over the counter? (And any idea on price, according to that, the listed price is online only)

[Yipyap]

Not sure, I'm on the other side of the pond. I'm not sure if that's a major retail pharmacy or what, but I have a local pharmacy that stocks the Tenas, but none of the retail giants do.

[wetman]

@Yipyap: LLoyds Pharmacy is one of the two largest UK 'brick' pharmacies, the other being Boots.

@ Sigma117: You will find that none of the common UK pharmacies will stock good incontinence briefs or adult nappies. I think that's mainly because the NHS will provide you with them if needed, directly to the door; it's not like usual prescriptions that you take to the counter.

You will find it easier to look for disability (wheelchair/ scooter/ daily living aids) shops; even though they don't advertise it much, a lot of them have some of the premium brands (Tena, Molicare, Abena, Lille) in stock. The big two, Boots and LLoyds, are limited by what their company stocks and are therefore not very helpful; they either have it or not, no need to ask if they can try to get them (they'll try and sound helpful and them come back to you with 'no, ever so sorry').

I take it that online purchases are out of the question because you don't want any packets of nappies turn up on your mum's doorstep. That's a big bother, because it'd be the best way of getting good quality at a good price. Using a postbox service will wreck the price (which I can tell is a no-no for you...), so the best thing would be to hook up with someone close who can order for you, which is also very hard.

You are in a bit of a fix there.

Try disability shops in your region. Ring them up and ask what they have in stock over the counter. If you feel that you need to explain (you don't really need to!) then tell them that you just want to buy some better quality ones to supplement the rather cheap ones that the NHS sends you. Happens all the time.

I hope this helps a bit; good luck hunting (at least nappies don't run as fast as deer...)!

[Zander]

@ Sigma117: You will find that none of the common UK pharmacies will stock good incontinence briefs or adult nappies. I think that's mainly because the NHS will provide you with them if needed, directly to the door; it's not like usual prescriptions that you take to the counter.

You will find it easier to look for disability (wheelchair/ scooter/ daily living aids) shops; even though they don't advertise it much, a lot of them have some of the premium brands (Tena, Molicare, Abena, Lille) in stock. The big two, Boots and LLoyds, are limited by what their company stocks and are therefore not very helpful; they either have it or not, no need to ask if they can try to get them (they'll try and sound helpful and them come back to you with 'no, ever so sorry').

I call bollocks on the first part. From what I've seen its actually the majority of Boots and Lloyds stores that have incontinence products in stock -- Tena in Lloyds - generally all three varieties (pads, pull ups and slips) and Boots stock re-branded Attends ("StayDry") and Tena (usually not as wide a range as Lloyds). In the case where you have two stores of the same chain in the same area (e.g. two Boots stores) you'll probably only find them stocked in one store.

I agree the selection is generally limited to those two brands (Attends and Tena), sometimes you see Depends and Abena every now and again in smaller chains/stores, but the idea that "most pharmacies don't stock good incontinence products" just isn't correct from what I've seen (and I do a lot of travel). In every minor town or larger you can find one or two places (or more) stocking Attends, Tena and/or Abena and Depends.

[wetman]

@Zander, please accept my sincere apologies for spreading lies.

@Sigma117: See, no problem at all. You must be doing something wrong.

[Zander]

@wetman: Not sure if that was sarcasm or not I wasn't accusing you of lying, simply saying that I've seen the opposite and I'd be genuinely surprised if it turned out to be the case anywhere in the UK. Just in your area, Hampshire has no shortage of places that stock them - I'm probably forgetting places, but in the past year or so I've seen them available in Aldershot, Andover, Basingstoke, Eastleigh, Guildford, Portsmouth, Southampton, Waterloovile, Winchester and Woking.

[wetman]

@wetman: Not sure if that was sarcasm or not

...

Of course it was sarcasm, matey!

If you include Boots's StayDry and Tena Pants Disceet in to the class of 'good nappies' then you are perfectly right: every Tesco, Sainsbury's and so on stocks something like that. I didn't rate them as such and Sigma wouldn't have asked, really...

If you can tell me where to get Abriform M4, Lille Maxi medium or Molicare SuperPlus Medium in Winchester, Andover, Basingstoke, then there's a beer in it for you, including genuine apology.

[wetman]

Zander?

[Zander]

RE: Abriform, Lille Maxi or Molicare SuperPlus -- not sure of anywhere where you might find those off the top of my head, but when I'm next in the area I'll take a look. That's likely to be a while and I wouldn't hold out much hope on it.

I agree with you that it is unlikely that you'll find "good" nappies well distributed and stocked, for what its worth my point was that you can get some nappies (i.e. Tena and StayDry - and not just the pull up ones) in pretty much every town. That said, Tena Slip's certainly aren't "bad" in my view, in fact my only major gripe is that I don't like the purple colour on the Maxi variant!

[Sigma117]

Thanks for the replies, they're quite helpful ^^

Though I'm still not 100% confident walking into a store, might just get them delivered~