My family are coming over with just hand luggage and need to have Epiderm cream. The tub they left here last time is out of date so if they turn up at the airport with some will it be discarded through being classed as a liquid. Failing that would a chemist here dispense an English prescription?

Many thanks

I don't think cream is considered a liquid ( check with the airport) and I don't think you would get an english prescription dispensed here.

Airport security should allow prescription drugs etc. provided that you have the prescription with you. Creams are considered to be the same as liquids for security purposes. I would have thought thata French pharmacy would dispense the cream if it is available here but they would of course require full payment.

If you can remember how you got the last tub of cream in .....just do the same this time - or, look it up on Google to see if the name is the same in France - or ask the pharmacist in the UK if there is an equivalent available in France (if he/she knows from their medical dispensing dictionary ....or you could try Chemist Direct - although they may take some time - or, you could ask your own MT here if it would be available, and ask the pharmacist how much it would cost without a prescription - and also look into the possibility of it being available for reclaiming from the EHIC once your guest returns to the UK

Or .....slight possibility someone might have some ...or be coming to France from the UK by car who could bring some ? (it's holiday time, so you never know !)

Good luck !

get a printed uk perscription ...take to your doctor....he will give you an ordanace....take to pharmacy

What is the cream called? I'll be yelled at for this, but use by dates for cream (non steroidal) are largely insignificent.

Creams are classed as liquids and a large pot of any type of cream will/should be confiscated by most airlines, with or without presentation of the prescription. Otherwise all plane hijackers would carry liquid explosives hidden in pots of E45 with a prescription, n'est-ce pas?? Think the security at airports have figured that one out ...

English prescriptions are not dispensed here as such but most pharmacists will issue them and you pay for it. It won't be reimbursable unless you go via the doctor, as previously posted.

Depends what your talking about of course. A huge tub of E45 costs a few quid, a tube of Daivonex costs about 60 euros.

Also you'll know that all pharmacies play by different rules. One in my town won't even renew a repeat prescription from a doctor for Zopicline (sleeping tablets) because it's on the list of non-repeat medicines, but the other one down the road will flog you a packet without a prescription ...

What I'd probably do is get the name of the cream and the quantity, and assuming you have full health cover, go to your doctor and get a prescription for it in your name. You don't say what the skin cream is for - exzema, psoriasis? Job done. My doctor with whom I've been registered for 12 years just waits for my list of medicaments on the rare occasions I visit him and sticks renewable 6 months on the bottom with all the medicines in the largest quantities allowed per prescription. Last time my son went to see him, on their way out of his surgery he said 'anything for you today?' I said, yes please ....................... and he added them all to my son's prescription.

I had no problem getting a Uk prescription for antibiotics dispensed in a pharmacy in France, and in fact, it was a lot less than the standard fee in the UK!