In thinking £70 for a prescription is a joke!

[buggyRunner]

Dp has private health care as part of his job package. He is seeing a doctor (mh problems) on this and is on anti depressants (v low dose).

He gets charged differently in each different pharmacy- tesco quoted £70 for his prescription which he decined shopped about and got from boots in the end for £26.

How come you have to pay so much? Were British and England based btw.

CrockoDuck I wasn't accusing you of lying. The was more incredulity.

Amoxycillin is dirt cheap in it's standard form which is why its so well used. I'd guess it wasn't standard A or Boots made a large mistake in their favour.

No offence meant.

It's funny but I live in a country which uses insurance for medical care, much like the U.S. so you'd expect prescriptions to cost more than the UK.

I get a pack of 100 AD tablets for only £5 here. In the UK it was £7.40 just for 60.

By the way, can anyone tell me if they've started selling Omeprazole 20mg off the shelf in the UK? cuz they do in Sweden and I'm a bit about that because my doctor told me it costs £60 a strip (7 pills) in the UK and yet it's only £4 OTS here... (although I get 100 prescribed for me same as the AD)

The NHS prescription charge is higher than the cost for some things to partly subsidise the cost of more expensive drugs. Some GPs apparently write private prescriptions to get around that which is a bit as it is completely inconsistent. Pharmacists often tell you if your prescription is actually an over the counter drug that costs less than £7.40, but that only works for over the counter things.

Some peoples replies to anti private are a bit off.

If OP's DP, has private health care with his work, he will have to pay Tax on it as it is a benefit. He will also still be paying TAX and NI on his income, so he is basically paying his fair share of TAX ! So he is contributing to the NHS and some more.....

There is nothing wrong with the NHS, but having private backup for people who want/need it is a good thing !

As for being unreasonable, yes and no - if private prescriptions are more then so be it.... doesnt he get the cost of the medication refunded by the heathcare company ???

You can buy omeprazole 10mg for around £10 for 14 capsules, 20mg caps are only available on script. The cost of the 20mg caps to the NHS is only a few pounds for 28 with branded Losec being around £11 for 28.

As for the supermarket pharmacies being cheaper what they want is footfall (and can therefore afford to do private scripts with little or no profit) - it is widely accepted that any person entering a supermarket for a prescription will spend a minimum of £50 on stuff they probably don't want and that is why there is generally a 10 minute wait as a minimum.

I'm guessing that the OP mentioned it because they can't claim it back from the private healthcare company, otherwise this would be the most incredible non-issue.

Come to Scotland, prescriptions are free for everyone.

Private prescriptions aren't.