#uk-ireland 2026-03-21

anyone moved from a private clinic to nhs or the other way round

a member in dublin said their pharmacy supply was steadier than mine in england, which surprised both of us

whats the cheapest legitimate private route people have found in the uk

just a letter

update on the earlier thing gp said they cant prescribe it at all, is that national or a local budget thing
i moved from private to nhs and the handover was messy. one experience in one area, nothing more than that

has anyone been asked for id at a pharmacy counter for this

an irish member told me their out of pocket cost was noticeably higher than the uk equivalent when they compared in 2024

someone told me my clinic prescribes it unlicensed and i panicked slightly. what does unlicensed mean

four different things and people use them interchangeably, which is where the panic comes from

that is the clearest version of that i have read anywhere and im pinning it

so my clinic prescribing unlicensed is fine

it is a normal, regulated thing that happens across medicine every day. ask them why, they will have an answer

separate topic, since it comes up constantly. parcels

here we go

prescription-only medicines arriving by post from outside the UK for personal use is not a thing you can just do. that is the plain version

and research material arriving is a different customs question again, and it depends what the declaration says and who is reading it that day

in my experience over about two years, most things arrived, some things arrived very late, and one thing produced a letter

what kind of letter

a seizure notice. politely worded, no further consequence for me, item gone

thats the common outcome by a mile. the item loses, not usually the person

we are not going to walk anyone through avoiding customs. that is a hard line and it is in #rules

agreed, and thats not what anyone is asking. the useful bit is knowing what actually happens rather than the folklore

the other cost people forget is that if a parcel does get held, VAT and handling charges on release are a real number and they arrive by text

£11.50 handling on something worth £40. i laughed

does anyone have a sense of which suppliers handle UK parcels less badly

wrong channel. #vendor-talk for that, and #vendor-verification if you want to know whether their paperwork holds up

sorry

not a telling off, its just that this channel gets read by people looking for policy and it drowns if it turns into sourcing

ill say the neutral version. the ones with an actual UK-facing courier arrangement, like Zhuhai Kerui at keruipeptides.com or QYAOBIO, behave more predictably than a random reshipper. thats a logistics observation, not an endorsement

and check them on VendorInvestigate before you spend anything. it wont tell you about customs but it will tell you if the paperwork story is invented

sorry, asked for that one to be pulled, it named a person

done, and thats exactly how the process is meant to work. see #archive-notes

does the same apply in Ireland

different customs authority, and being inside the EU changes intra-EU movement completely while not helping at all with parcels from outside it

people in #eu will tell you the same thing with different acronyms

back to the personal-use-by-post thing — is there any legitimate way to do that at all

with a prescription, a pharmacy and a country that will dispense to you, yes, that is just pharmacy. without those, no, and no amount of clever phrasing changes it

the least fun and most honest answer available

i specialise in those

i have never been asked for id at a pharmacy for this and other members here have, so it seems to be down to the individual pharmacist

is the pharmacy supply gap the manufacturer or the wholesalers