AIBU to wonder how people are so shortsighted?

[NHSisfubar]

There is a link currently doing the rounds on Facebook saying that you can sign up at Boots for 'free' non prescription medicines such as plasters and cough syrup on (what appears to be) an NHS scheme. So thousands of people are tagging each other saying 'oooh look Maude; you can get free plasters for baby Harold' (names chosen at random..). Fine if Maude is really on the breadline and baby Harold really needs this stuff but it looks like a lot of grabby freeloaders in general who could happily afford to buy their own plasters.

Having looked online it does appear to be a genuine NHS scheme across all pharmacies. So now people are going to be signing up to get more 'FREE' stuff. No wonder the NHS is nearly collapsing. AIBU in thinking it's ridiculous and people should keep the NHS for actual emergency care?

You can't go and "stock up". You have to have a consultation with pharmacist who will prescribe the item for a genuine condition only.

propel - I'm not familiar with your garage but there does appear to be an issue www.medicinewaste.com/

I overhear (and sometimes have said directly to me) that my patients (Podiatry) should get their 'free' treatment because they don't get anything else.
Many of them don't come under our criteria- being over 65yo does not automatically entitle a person.
Many of them see it as a consellation prize (though we do assess and discharge low risk/low need patients).

So, yes there seems to be a "What can I get for free" sense with patients.

Like the ones who want cream. If someone really needed something like Flexitol ( maybe they've had heel splits that have ulcerated and once healed they need crea, but they don't see the sense/want to pay). If it was cost-effective, to keep their heels out of the ulcer clinic and the weekly (expensive) dressings , then yes, I will write to the GP to REQUEST . The GP might refuse.

If it's tub of E45 or Aqueous, then no. The GP is very unlikely to prescribe it. The patient can ask, but might not be given.

Yeah Fanjo - I think the Facebook post doing the rounds is misleading. The pharmacist is a proxy for the dr.so each item given should relate to a specific condition currently being experienced. I dont think
that is well understood. However on my feed there were comments to the effect that the pharmacist doesn't need to see the child. As I said, I have no problem with kids in need getting basic meds but I do know from my feed there are people who posted pictures of themselves quaffing champagne last night who are gleeful at getting access to this scheme including one company director. This is what astonishes me and doesn't sit comfortably.

The issue is it doesn't stop ppl wasting GPs time. Ppl will still take their children for a slight temp regardless because some are so wet and want that reassurance from the gp over every ailment.

Oh please, E45 is so cheap. Do you think the NHS is being raped for cream?

Champagne? Now I think there might just be a little tongue in cheekery going on. Unless they really relish being over extravagant with plasters, E45 and nit lotion....the mind boggles.

There's always been abuse of 'free' prescriptions. I remember being taken to the GP when young with fictitious ailments in order to get prescriptions which would be filled and the medicines then taken abroad to Pakistan to give to relatives there when we visited.

This was being done and discussed quite prolifically amongst my parents circle. The GP was Asian, so was 'in on it' and would prescribe things on request even when my parents were blatantly saying it was for a relative.

I would imagine with many more Asian pharmacists, many of whom could be relatives or friends, it would be even easier to abuse such a scheme in such a way.

Is this a cash limited scheme with an allocated prescribing budget or is it open ended ?

We've been using this for years but tbh half the time it's a bit useless. You get the cheapest treatment available which from experience has been rubbish eg head live solution and veruca liquid. We've ended up having to buy the expensive stuff anyway.

There is a problem with people who go to the GP to get a prescription so they don't have to pay for calpol, or other standard otc medicines. Not just parents but really it's primarily OAPs (certainly in my area). If they didn't get free prescriptions they wouldn't make the appointment, they'd go and buy the relevant medicine direct. They will go in to ask for a prescription specifically, not because they want a consultation, they already know what is wrong.

they don't get the brand versions (calpol or whatever). But It's not about stopping free prescriptions. It's about enabling people to get them without needing to take up a gp appointment which could be used by someone who needs it.

I dialled a GP phone number (not my own GP) to hear a recorded message:

Pnt had to give details to Receptionist and the GP would phone them back for a telephone consultation.
But if they had (not complete list here) D&V, colds/flu, headlice, warts, headache,sprains/strains,period pain, headache, backache.... they had to see the Pharmacist first.

So already in force. And those who don't want to discuss their ailments with the Receptionist.............?

CinderellaRockefeller
That's a big effort to go to for a free bottle of Calpol. We have three week wait to see a GP in my area, far too long to wait for a headache.

I think that's a great scheme actually but then I feel prescription charges are part of the slow erosion of the NHS and that Scotland has got the right idea.

People don't value the NHS because it's free at point of delivery. If this scheme has been set up to avoid people seeing their GP or OOH service for this stuff, they should be bloody fined for wasting medical time.

The idea that the NHS can afford unlimited everything for everyone, and as many appointments as you like, is a nonsense.

If you can't afford plasters or generic paracetamol for your kids then you've got bigger problems.

I think you`ll find most medicine were prescription only until released to over the counter - so technically those paying over the counter have been subsidising the NHS for years. Thus freeing more GP time and saving the NHS money - only you dont realise it because its now normal.

Propelusagain- you'd be amazed. Seriously, this scheme and a few other similar ones are backed up by the numbers, they're not just designed for the sake of it.

There is loads of evidence that Minor Ailments Schemes work.

MistressMia - great that you have such a high opinion of the pharmacy profession.

I used to work in a chemist years ago and we did this "minor ailments scheme".

I can remember the owner getting us to flog it to every person who came in looking for a 19p packet of paracetamol.

He could then use the prescription and claim back the £6.35 it was at the time

Absolutely stupid system.

Liquid paracetamol £175 - cost of normal pain killers £80 million on prescription. Someone is making a fortune and fleecing the NHS and its not the children.

I think it's a useful scheme - I've used it to get meds for the kids without wasting the GPs time

Ha ha Capsium - I just read my post - I explained badly. Saturday night face book pics of nights out quaffing champagne. Sunday morning face book posts from same people saying that they will be going down to Boots to get their next bottle of Calpol on this scheme. They weren't cracking open the champers to celebrate finding out about the scheme!

Some interesting responses here. Nobody has said anything that would change my mind that some people that don't honestly NEED this service seem out to abuse the system.

When I went to pharmacist to ask about ds eye - whether it looked like conjunctivitis and whether it warranted a Dr they gave me free antibiotic eye gel, when it hadn't cleared a few days later they gave me drops free - I wonder if this was this scheme - though it was a local (northwest England) chemist

"a lot of grabby freeloaders in general" -- I'm always intrigued by those who say that it's a social duty to decline social services to which you're entitled but can get by without. Should I pay standard tube and bus fares for my son on the grounds that I could afford to do without the free travel to which he's entitled as an under16? Should I decline child tax credits? Should I send him to private school if I can get together the money? Insist on paying for his prescriptions? How can I tell which of my entitlements it's ok to accept and which ones I am morally obliged to decline?

Of course there are people who take advantage of this scheme - there's always a small minority who's at it.

But just how the billions in not claimed benefits far outnumber those getting benefits they may not be entitled too, and the reporting is SO biased, it beggars belief , this is again not something I can get het up about.

19p for Paracetamol is a bigger some if you are actually taking 8 daily for months or years. Do the maths.
The minor ailment scheme (or whatever name it goes by in different places) is aimed at the treatment of, well, minor ailments.