Spanish Steps - Fact file - Chemist's

La farmacia, the pharmacy, in Spain, is a bit different from its British counterpart. They don't offer services such as film developing or perfumes, purely medicinas, medicines, and first-aid essentials such as el alcohol, surgical spirit, el algodón, cotton wool, el esparadrapo, surgical tape, and las tiritas, plasters. You can also buy unos analgésicos, ordinary painkillers and buy contraceptives like unos condones, condoms, and la píldora, the pill.

La farmacia will be clearly marked with a green cross displayed on the front of the shop. For emergencies every town has a pharmacy on duty round the clock called la farmacia de guardia, dispensing emergency items or medicines con receta, with a doctor's prescription.

Spain in general is a highly medicated country, and while the sale of medicines is tightly regulated, people tend to keep a well-stocked medicine cabinet at home.

Despite this the pharmacy still plays a central role in the local community, and along with the grocer's or the market, acts as a point of social contact. This was reflected in the top-rating TV comedy series of the mid-90's in Spain, Farmacia de Guardia. In a contemporary twist, the chemist featured was a divorced woman with children.