Am I going to get a huge fine? Not paying for prescriptions

[Pharmacyhelp]

Hi all,
I’m so scared and hoping someone can give help. I’ve been really ill over the last 6 months or so, and I’ve been given lots of prescriptions that have to be picked up from the hospital pharmacy (outpatients).
I take regular medication and pay for all my prescriptions at my usual pharmacy.
The first few things I collected from the hospital were in preparation for a medical procedure, the pharmacy never asked me for payment or if I was exempt, I never signed anything. They didn’t even appear to have facilities to take payment! So I just assumed if it was hospital pharmacy it was free as hospital treatment is free. This just continued with them never asking for payment.
That was until 2 days ago, when a different person was on the counter and he asked if I pay for prescriptions and I said yes but I didn’t think you paid here, he looked at me like I was mad and said ‘of course you do’ so I obviously paid but now I’m terrified.
I think there’s probably been 20 odd prescriptions I’ve had from there? I’ve been really ill, my minds not been with it and I genuinely didn’t mean to mislead anyone and not pay.
I’m not doing well financially (because of how ill I am!) and now I’m terrified I’m going to get a £3k odd fine.
Anyone know what I can do and how likely a fine is?

Eek. I have no idea and nothing supportive to add, but I (apparently) have also stolen a prescription - I was handed it I'm A&E and left. Never occurred to me to pay! Also wouldn't know how, since it was literally a nurse not a pharmacist witn a card machine.
Oops!

When I moved house the post codes didn't match up (direct debit from bank and new adress) they contacted me in a few day

Why don't you get a prepayment certificate it's £12 a month ish? Direct debit and it's all Paid for x

If you’ve never signed the prescription to say you are exempt I can’t see how they can prove that you’ve not paid

Thanks I have a pre payment certificate now, signed up yesterday. I’ve definitely never signed anything, so do you think that means they can’t fine me as I haven’t lied?

You can backdate annual prepaid prescription cards (although I’m not sure how far back you can go) so I would recommend trying to do that now and go back over the last six months to cover you.

I moved address and didn’t tell them, and they caught up with me very quickly. I think it’s quite a high number that they randomly check so I am surprised you haven’t had a letter yet if you did need to pay for them - and sometimes patients are discharged with medication that they don’t pay for. Given you have some many prescriptions, a prepaid card will work out cheaper for you anyway in the long term.

if you haven’t signed anything then how would they know you haven’t paid?

I *think it’s 1 month.

My dad had this shit and a fine because he’s had a self renewing prepay thing for donkeys and the year he turned 60 - they didn’t renew it, he didn’t know this- so he collected his prescriptions- and then figured out it wasn’t renewed, went to pay but they would only let him back date for 1 month. Absolutely shitty behaviour from the prescriptions service (not the pharmacy- not their issue).

There are some conditions where you can get a prescription exemption. You need to fill in a form but pretty simple. Have you checked if your Condition is on the list? It might be that the medication you get is commonly used to treat one of them so they assumed you were exempt...

i wouldn't worry too much, hospital prescription are different in the they are kept in the hospital unlike prescriptions from community pharmacies that are sent off for the pharmacy to claim their payment. Therefore they are not check in the same way.
If you had treatment on a day until any medication you were given would be classed as a discharge prescription and not payed for. Unless you signed to say that you were exempt from payment, then I expect the worst that could happen is they would ask the the missed charges rather than a fine. And this would require some one to go back through the prescription and it is unlikely that anyone has time to do this.
If you're income has dropped it might be worth checking is you can get help with prescription charges https://www.gov.uk/help-nhs-costs

I have a condition which makes me exempt from prescription charges. However, you have to apply for a new exemption certificate every 5 years. My first exemption certificate expired about 4 years ago. I wasn't aware as we had moved house and the letter re my renewal wasn't forwarded. A few months later I received a letter telling me that I had ordered a few prescriptions and had incorrectly told them I had an exemption certificate and had to pay the prescription charge and fine. I rang them and explained. I was told I still had to pay for the prescriptions and a fine. I can't remember how much it was. It may have been around £35. It would increase if I didn't pay within 14 days. I now keep a record of the expiry date of my exemption certificate.

I got fined £50. Letter in post from NHS. But i was actually exempt as I had just had a baby. So just explained and all forgotten

Ludicrous that this even happens - there is no prescription charge in NI or Scotland.

I'm exempt but I've never had to prove it. I just tick the box. It must be registered someplace. Unless some one does an audit how would they find out?

i went to the pharmacy ibstead of the gp because it was sunday and was quicker - we are advised to do this to take the pressure of the gp. hoewever i was charged £9.99 although i get free prescriptions as i am a pensioner. - so if i hgad gone to the gp it wld have cost me nothing.

The fine is not huge. I was sent a letter saying I was going to be fined. it was about £110.
I had been ticking the wrong box for months. However, I was on Universal Credit and at the time there was not an option for it on the form.