about prescription charges.

[nothappyharry]

Both dh and I have medical conditions which require us to be on regular medication. We both have to pay these charges. I really resent this as some medical conditions are exempt from these charges. Also I now understand that the NHS is unable to prescribe more than a month at a time but most medication comes in packs of 28 so its only 4 weeks. DH has recently been to see consultant! at hospital who has doubled his dosage. However, they are far too busy to advise gp in time and gp unable to up it without letter so dh has now paid £7.20 for 2 weeks medication.
Rant over.

It's a pain, I know.

DH has a chronic condition plus bp meds, so every month we wouold need to pay for 6 items.

What we have done is get him a prepaid card, he pays it every year and it works out cheaper.

Would that help?

YANBU I'm surprised your GP didn't take it on trust and prescribe the new dosage.

I resent the Scottish not having to pay for any prescriptions more than I resent the fact that some people are exempt because of chronic conditions.

Oh, and YANBU.

Could you get a yearly prepayment certificate? (£104 for 12 months) here

curlymama, well, save your resentment as we do pay for them.

Do you know about prepayment certificates link here. Its currently £28.25 for three months or £104 for a year and that's for unlimited prescriptions. I guess that's around 4 prescriptions every three months to break even.

resent the Welsh instead, they don't!

Why do you resent the Scottish curlymama? Our prescription charges are currently £3 and being phased out. That is because we voted in a government who pledged this and are delivering on it through careful management of our taxes. You should resent the Westminster government for gross mismanagement of funds and not providing this for you rather than the Scottish people for getting what we voted for. I am shocked at your bigotry.

OP is there a way to pay a monthly or yearly charge (I'm sure we can do it in Scotland but that's probably because we're all scroungers and taking what we don't deserve, according to some posters!) and that might make it a bit more manageable, particularly if you have multiple prescriptions. But £7.20 for a single prescription is ridiculous!

I thought Scotland just had cheaper prescriptions? It's in Wales that it's free.

It does seem unfair that some conditions are exempt and other not. Even more unfair that some parts of the UK get their free of charge...

However you might want to look into getting a 6-monthly or annual pre-paid certificate which could reduce your costs if they are very regular.

I think in this country we are VERY insulated against how much medicine actually costs. When I worked in a pharmacy I would have people complain to me about prescription costs, when their medicines cost several hundred pounds and they were paying £4.20 (Yes, it's been a while since I worked in a pharmacy ). Couldn't say anything of course.

I too am suprised the GP didn't change the dosage without the letter. It may take a couple of weeks before he gets the letter. What if the Consultant had advised something completely new? Would your DH have had to wait to start until letters sent and received between the two docs?

Go ahead and resent NI as well. Because we did the same thing Scotland did and 'script charges were phased out this past April.

Although I do still pay £7 a month for one of mine as NHS has stopped carrying Xanax, so I have to get it as a private 'script.

Fair enough, I stand corrected and I'm sorry!

I'll save it for the Welsh instead then.

£3 is still a bargain, but I agree that £7.20 is too much.

Fancy - you also have the reverse, something costing £1.60 and paying £7.20 for it. But I agree with you, overall we don't pay much for medicines. Eg contraception is all free. Of course it makes sense, cheaper than terminations, better all round etc etc, yet we don't ask women to contribute.

We get them free here in Northern Ireland.

CristinaTheAstonishing true, but less common, and when I worked in a pharmacy if it was a P or OTC medicine I ALWAYS let the patient know so they could buy it at the lower price.

Dh uses a pre-payment certificate. Our GP prescribes more that a months supply at a time, I think a 3 month supply usually.

Our consultants write out a GP prescription and give it to the patients in clinic. It takes about 2 mins to do it. The patient then takes it to his/her GP and gets the new dose/new medication. Why isn't your hospital doing that?

I don't pay for my meds (chronic condition which is covered by free prescription), but before I was covered I got a yearly prescription card. It was a lot cheaper.

Agedknees - what the Consultants should do is write the damn prescription themselves, they are qualified doctors, you don't even need the green pad to write a prescription, as long as you give sufficient details about the patient (DOB, address, NHS no etc), the medication, and yourself (GMC number). Then also inform the GP. I suppose they don't do it this way as theoretically the Gp can decide not to write the prescription the specialist advised. I doubt that happens often, though.

CristinaTheAstonishing I'm an American Ex-Pat and I totally don't get that at all. Why can't the consultants write the script?

When I was pregnant I was put on insulin for diabetes. My ante-natal Diabetoligist had his secretary write a letter for me to give to my GP telling her what to write me a 'script for. Then I had to wait 48 hours for the GP to actually write the 'script.

A Diabetologist is an MD. Why the hell couldn't he just write the 'scripts?!?!

Unfortunately the yearly one probably won't work for us as we only have 1 item per month. It was the consultants attitude that annoyed me the most. Although I still can't see why the GP couldn't prescribe 2 months at a time.

Tee - I know, it's baffling. I think it would be a brave GP (or very clever in that particular area) who decided to go against a specialist's advice and NOT write the prescription. So why all this faffing about? Maybe because the GP knows the patient's entire medical history, so may know of other conditions etc the patient hasn't had time etc to tell the specialist about. But then it should still be the specialist's responsibility to take a full history and so on. I guess they don't have the time. Hmm, I need to find out some more.

It does seem stupid. When I took DS to see a paediatrician at the hospital once, I mentioned that he seemed to have an eye infection (appt was about something different). The doctor examined him, agreed, and gave me a prescription to get filled at the hospital pharmacy on my way out. Any doc should be able to do a prescription.

Rhian82 - that sounds like it ought to be!