Brown Thomas has been facing backlash over an IV drip station in the new Dundrum store.
The new shop opened last Thursday in Dundrum Town Centre, following a €12m investment by the luxury retail group.
Brown Thomas is providing the “Get a Drip” service which offers IV vitamin drips, IV injections, booster shots and instant vitamin C and D testing and consultations to provide tailored beauty packages.
The website description reads: “Get A Drip is a leading Vitamin Drip provider, available in Brown Thomas Dundrum.
“To date, they have administered over 35,000 IV Vitamin Drips and Booster Shots from their premium central London & Dublin locations. The clinics are CQC registered and their medical staff are all either IMC registered Doctors or NMBI registered Nurses.
“IV Nutrition Therapy is a great way to give your body a boost, with a multitude of positive uses - from correcting vitamin deficiencies to ensuring general wellbeing.
“Receiving Vitamins via an IV Drip or Booster Shot means that all nutrients bypass the gut and any absorption issues, making them 100 percent bioavailable for your body to use.
“This makes it a highly effective way of receiving essential nutrients.”
But this new service has been receiving criticism online.
One tweets read: “This is the craziest thing I have seen in a long time. Brown Thomas need to have a hard look at themselves offering this type of pseudo medical service.”
“Some people have way too much money and they are willing to throw it away on ridiculous treatments and Brown Thomas has years of experience of taking their money. Maddening when some people are struggling to pay Gas and ESB.”
“So if you're wealthy, you can inject substances in Brown Thomas but a safe injection centre for the poor isn't a good look for the city. Right. This makes me very angry.”
Meanwhile, other people joked: “If you're considering getting IV Vitamins from Brown Thomas of all places, could I interest you in simply eating more fruit.”
“The drip they are charging €85 for is ‘Hartman’s solution’ and it costs about €2 a bag. Have a Powerade and a Berocca pal and save yourself a fortune,” said another person.
“Can absolutely see myself in the depths of a hangover, traipsing to Brown Thomas to get injections to feel better tbh,” joked another Twitter user.
Earlier today, Orla Walsh, a dietitian at Dublin nutrition centre told Claire Byrne: “A dietitian's role in a hospital is to get nutrition into people and often it’s a case of how do we get it in.
"We always go by the oral route first so by mouth, by ingestion and we use the likes of IV drips as a last resort and only if we really have to.
“They have vitamins and nutrients added but a lot of them are water soluble, meaning if the body has enough it will urinate the excess out. It’s expensive urine.
“In the hospital the doctor will prescribe it, the nurse will administer it, the pharmacy will make it up and the dietitian will calculate what’s needed. It’s a whole team approach.
“The oral route is available so why would you bypass it?”
Brown Thomas provided Today with Claire Byrne on RTE with the following statement: "Get a Drip is an independent operation that provides a service at Brown Thomas in Dundrum. While the treatments offered are relatively new to Ireland and Brown Thomas, they have been available in retail environments in the US and UK for quite some time.
"Information on the treatment is provided by qualified professionals and all customers who avail of the service will be fully assessed for their suitability for the services before every treatment.
"Following the opening of the Dundrum store last Thursday, we have had a great reaction from the customers that has matched demand for this service in other markets."
Dublin Live has reached out to Brown Thomas for comment.
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