The two-box limit prevented me buying painkillers for my sick family

Flu-ridden, I went to a high street pharmacy chain to stock up on paracetamol, Lemsip and Calpol. It was January and I had never felt so ill in my life. In fact, we were all sick – my husband, four-year-old, and I. But when I got to the checkout, I was refused my purchase. The teenager on the till told me that I’d gone over the mandated two painkiller packet allowance. I’d encountered this rule the previous summer when filling my family’s first aid kit for our two week holiday. So I’d specifically made sure I only had two boxes of painkillers this time – one ibuprofen and one paracetamol, a drink so I could take it immediately, Strepsils and Calpol.

‘Calpol counts as one of the painkillers,’ he told me. It was either Calpol for my teary four-year-old or paracetamol for my sick husband. I exhaled and tried not to cry. I was hot, tired, and my throat hurt. ‘Sorry, we all agree that Calpol should be allowed,’ he added in solidarity. But there was nothing he could do so I didn’t complain. It was devastating because it was hard enough just summoning the strength to get out of bed and leave the house. And now I wasn’t allowed to buy what I came in for?.

The NHS medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis has said that this winter flu season is on track to be one of the worst we have ever seen. It’s definitely the worst I’ve ever had. From the very start of this flu, every day was harder than the last. I went to bed expecting to feel better by the morning, but to my horror, somehow, I woke up each day feeling even worse than the night before. Downstairs in the kitchen, I could barely hold myself up to pour a mug of tea. I propped my elbow on the kitchen counter and lifted the same kettle I used every morning, only with no strength left in my body, it was a stone heavier. Everything felt impossibly hard.

The whole family was down. The house had fallen to ruin. So I had to venture out to stock up on essentials for the weekend – and that’s when I was refused. This best practice guidance was developed by the Government – specifically, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency – to stop ‘stockpiling’. But by law, the number of pills per over-the-counter pack is 16. That means that a box would last my husband and I one day if we had two pills four times a day.

So it was either go around all the stores collecting them in microdoses, or come back every day to replenish. I put back my husband’s medicine, necked mine with a drink bought in store and carried on to every supermarket and pharmacy I could walk to. It’s crazy because they must know that consumers of Calpol are not old enough to go and buy it themselves. They rely on caregivers to purchase it, who often need to buy medicine for the whole family.

What about families with two, or three children? I only have one and it’s hard enough getting the medicine we all need. As a family, when one child gets sick, everyone does. And if you don’t all catch it at the same time, you slowly go down one by one. You take turns in getting sick, indefinitely, on a loop, all winter. This winter alone, we’ve had colds, flu, a diarrhea bug, Covid-19, and a chest infection. I’ve personally had tonsillitis twice in the last two months, and one allergic reaction. On top of that, there are school WhatsApp messages about chicken pox, and viral rashes in the class constantly.

So some level of stockpiling is necessary – especially in the winter term and during flu season. The thing is, I thought I was doing the right thing by not going to the doctors and asking for a prescription. This is because the official advice on the NHS website is, you don’t need to go to the GP for cold and flu. There’s nothing they will prescribe that you can’t buy over the counter yourself, and it costs the NHS more than it costs you. And as any parent will tell you, they really mean it.

They won’t give anything for a cold, flu or virus. It’s not worth taking a poorly child out of bed for. So I shouldn’t go to the doctors for a prescription, and I can’t buy it myself either?. The NHS also advises you to stay inside if you have a cold or virus – to stop spreading. I would love to be able to stay in bed and bunker down for a week, but I’m not allowed to ‘stockpile’ medicine – and anything more than two items is deemed unsafe.

I do understand the logic of limiting purchases in an attempt to minimise the chance of ‘accidental or impulsive overdose’. But I could walk into Tesco and start stockpiling vodka and that would be fine. There are no limits. I could buy 10 litres if I wanted to, with a crate of wine on the side, which I feel would be far more unsafe. At the end of the day, these rules aren’t in line with any other policies we have, and consumers shouldn’t be babysat when it comes to purchasing everyday, over-the-counter medicines they need.