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.

The whole system is horribly unfair. Most notably because, as some of you have already pointed out, most parts of the UK don't pay, but England does. Quite disgraceful frankly.

Christina - you are right, but it's probably something to do with budgets ie if the patient has a hospital prescription it comes out of the hospital budget, if gp prescription it comes out of gp budget.

Agedknees - I don't know, it shouldn't matter, it seems to be more embedded than that, it's been going on for years, whatever latest NHS re-roganisation.

have often wondered why insulin prescriptions are free and asthma inhaler prescriptions are not. who gets to decide which medical conditions are exempt anyway?
as paying for 2-3 inhalers a month can be exspensive and its not like i can go without :) I supose i could get a pre pay thingy but i would need one for the rest of my life :(

Save your resentment of us Welshies,yes we have free prescriptions but our hospital waiting times are much longer than in England.

Says me who hasn't had a prescription for over 6 yrs.

Ah now this I do know as my consultant told me. If he writes a prescription it comes out of his budget. If the Gp writes it comes out of his. This might be different depending on the local commissioning arrangements.

God there's some rubbish on this thread!
I work near the English/Welsh border and yes, whilst their Assembly has chosen to end prescription charges they have longer waiting times for surgery, we have to run 2 seperate waiting lists, short for the English and longer for the Welsh.
That is the decision of the Welsh Assembly and has sod all to do with me on the English side of the border, I know that I'd prefer the shorter waiting list than free prescriptions.

OP, I can see why you're pissed off, consultant should be able to give you someything im writing there and then.

"have often wondered why insulin prescriptions are free and asthma inhaler prescriptions are not. who gets to decide which medical conditions are exempt anyway"

Prescriptions tend to be free when they're not prescriptions for drugs like asthma medication but instead a replacement hormone like insulin.

Whilst I'm quite glad to get free prescriptions for life I'd be happy if the exemption only covered the one particular medication I have to take and didn't extend to everything, e.g. antibiotics needed unrelated to a long term condition

Thank you everyone. Good to let off steam. sauvignon it gets worse. Dispensary at Gps suggested I get them to fax something over. I rang Consultant's secretary and she had a word with consultant and they refused to even give a handwritten note as dosage change was not according to her a matter of urgency. In the time it took on the phone I am sure she could have drafted something.

Jelly. You should buy a 3 month prepayment and stockpile them. You should be able to squeeze 4 months worth out of that.

hogshead - I asked a GP today and he said much along those lines too. I don't know why, really, it's not as hospital or GP costs come out of individual pockets, it's all the same big NHS pot.