Minor ailment scheme thoughts?

[Oobis]

This has been in the news recently, essentially, minor conditions can be treated by a pharmacist who can supply medication for the price of a prescription rather than you paying retail price (think calpol and similar). Therefore, items like this for people who don't pay for prescriptions can be supplied free of charge.
I'm amazed at the strength and variety of feelings amongst my peer group. Some think it's fabulous and they weren't aware, but others say if you can afford to buy this stuff, you should buy it and save the nhs some money. What are your thoughts? Obviously this is not a means tested scheme - should you use it if you could afford to buy or do you think as childrens' prescriptions are free that it is ok to get this stuff for free?
I'm not trying to start a fight, I'm just interested in your thoughts. www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Pharmacy/Pages/Commonconditions.aspx

My thoughts are definitely that if you can afford to buy it, you should - but that if you are in the category where you would go without it because you can't afford it, then the minor ailments scheme should apply to you.

I gather that it's mostly available in Scotland, and only in some areas in the UK though - but that you won't find it publicised where, you have to ask.

Boots, for example, do subscribe to it but not every branch.

It's like people have just discovered the wheel of late. This scheme is well old and I don't live in no Scotland.

The NHS is on it's knees financially adn pretty much the only thing we as ordinary people can do to help is not take the piss out of it. And getting "free" OTC meds from the MAS when you can afford £1.50 for a bottle of paracetamol or £1 for a pack of plasters is royally taking the piss.

I've paid my taxes, I'm "entitled" to it but I'm sure as heck not going to use it because I want the NHS to survive ans doing my bit is not getting ""free" stuff when I can pay for it myself.

I use it. And I pay for my prescriptions so it's not all just people who get free ones!

I think it great for folks who genuinely struggle to afford the likes of Calpol etc. We're on a low income but I would rather pay for it than not. Unless we do end up in shit creek I'll continue to pay for it.

Interesting that there are those who aren't short of cash should choose to get it free because they're 'entitled' too.

No wonder the NHS is fucked.

I used to work in a pharmacy when they first brought this out in Scotland and I can tell you now the only people who benefit from this are the ones who are on the breadline and the bloody pharmacy owner!!

I bet they thought all their christmases had come at once. Dispense 6p packet of paracetamol-claim back the prescription from the govournment (at usually extortionate prices!!) The more expensive the script, the bigger the reimbursements.

At least thats how it worked when I was there, you'd hope the gov has got wise to it now though!

Seriously people, if you can afford to just pay the 22p for the paracetamol. has nothing to do with the fact my exboss was a wanker

I can't afford it because I pay for my prescriptions! So I have a pre payment card. Antibiotics give me thrush, so the minor ailment lets me get thrush treatment
Given I work for the NHS, and pay for scripts I pay enough in

I've had a think and a read about this. I think my conclusion is that in general, I am likely to have various supplies in my cupboard which I have bought at my own convenience for when required. Should I need the advice of a pharmacist about a medical condition, I would feel no guilt about using this service, which is merely an extension of free prescriptions using a different medical professional. I don't see the merit in taking a sick child to the chemist to get a couple of quids worth of stuff for free that I ought to have in stock anyway, but if I needed the advice, I would probably be happy to use the service. I wouldn't use it for sudocream, head lice treatments and the like.

I will not be using it and will be unimpressed by my friends who do, especially those who claim to "worry about NHS privatisation". We all afford hair cuts, clothes, holidays, odd nights out. I shop around and get Calpol equivalent a couple of bottles at a time when I see a good deal.

People who are genuinely struggling need it and if those who don't need it take the Mick tje provision will be lost forever.

As an aside, those who "pay for prescriptions" are heavily heavily subsidised - does anyone really think a state of the art (or even bog standard antibiotic) drug costs less than £8 a pop?!

I think there have been four threads on this since yesterday (including one closed as a duplicate by mods.) and the consensus on each is different!

I was aghast to read Facebook comments from people I know to be high earners delighted to hear they can get cheap non prescription stuff for their kids. I know the point to this was to avoid unnecessary dr appointments but these people would not have gone to the dr anyway! The annoyance for me is that the price of kids liquid paracetamol is a couple of quid if you buy it and zero to the nhs. Get it under this scheme and its zero to you and (by the accounts of pharmacists posting) 6-10 quid to the nhs. That's an expensive way to help your kid with teething.

How much calpol do people use that this is an issue?

Didn't realise the pharmacy claimed inflated prices back off the nhs. Maybe i have changed my mind on this one. I think I would still get it for canisten though if I could as that stuff is expensive. But perhaps it isn't worth it for things like calpol as it is pretty cheap anyway and hate to think the nhs was paying £6 for it.

It never crossed my mind not to use MAS, we were advised to use it by our health visitors but of course they must let everyone know as they can't deem who can afford the medicine and who can't. Just wondering, for those who can afford not to use the service, are there other 'free' things you've declined? I'm thinking about the free dental care offered to those pregnant or given birth in the past year. This is making me rethink my stance...

Youareall - I dunno how much calpol people use. Me and my toddler not much - 3 bottles in his lifetime (2years) I reckon. But by the comments on Facebook from some of the spa visiting, champagne drinking mummies I know who posted apparently it will 'save them a fortune'???? I suspect it is overused??

I wouldn't use it for Paracetomol or thrush cream etc as you can get it from tesco etc and online very cheap anyway. We did, however, have a massive headlice infestation about 18m ago at our house, so bad I would have considered taking out shares in hedrin, I spent a fortune and possibly would have asked for that at the pharmacy. (I have 8 children and even considered shaving my three daughters heads it was that bad! - I was scraping nits for 6 months!)

I've used it - I was on the way to Tesco to get cough medicine for DS when I decided to go to the pharmacy instead to see if there was some magic cough medicine I'd never heard of (there is t). The pharmacist took me into the little cupboard, went through a checklist and then got me a prescription so I got it for free. I wasn't expecting it but I'd certainly do it again. It's a poorly patient getting their NHS treatment. It's not a pisstake as I don't think you can rock up and just demand it.

our doctor does not prescribe paracetamol for the kids you are expected to buy your own however when our benefits were cut for a couple of months they prescribed it for us and also when the school refused to administer "calpol" due to it being a non prescribed medicine he prescribed it again i think sometimes the problem is the school my son had an ear infection he was fine to go to school but would be in pain when the morning dose ran out so he needed some at lunch time they said i needed to come in and administer it BUT its a 25/30 minute walk to school i cant drive and i have a baby to wrestle with (at the time) the doctor thought it was unfair and prescribed the medicine they had to give it to him they were not happy but i told them that or he is off school

like every system its going to be abused by some and not by others

They run the scheme in my area under the banner "Pharmacy First". If you read the commissioning guidelines it's all about trying to encourage people who would usually present at the GP or A&E with minor ailments to go to the pharmacy first. It is for a limited number of minor ailments and if the pharmacist considers it necessary then can supply medication (from a limited list) free of charge.

So, I get the idea from the point of view of saving the NHS money overall. TBH though, it pisses me off. The literature makes clear the pharmacist is not to signpost the scheme for people who would ordinarily self-care and pay for their OTC medication. i get that too, they don't want every Tom, Dick & Harry piling in to get their Calpol etc for free because the costs overall will increase.

To my mind, if you can pay for OTC medicine, whether for yourself or your children, you should. A bottle of Calpol is part and parcel of the costs involved in having children. The NHS cannot afford to pay for medicines for people who really really need them. I have to pay for medication that will hopefully prevent me having a stroke or heart attack. It should save the NHS a fortune in the long run. I don't mind paying my prescription charges because I want to a live a longer, healthier life too. But it does piss me off to hear that people who are doing the wrong thing (using the wrong NHS resources, namely the GP & A&E for the wrong thing at the wrong time) are basically rewarded for doing so- getting their OTC medications for free.

I'd never want a child who needs pain relief to go without it though- and I guess this is the cheapest way of making sure that doesn't happen. That people are so entitled to all want to pile in and get theirs for free too though is so wrong. The NHS is on its way under. We all have a responsibility to use it properly.

G'ah - another Facebook share - this time from two head of subject teachers. Nhs stumps up six quid, a tenner whatever, so they get to save two quid. This is bad economics.

I'm registered for it but have only used it once to get nappy cream that I apparently couldn't just buy OTC. Otherwise I figure that I'm well off and I'd rather not use up the funds when I don't need to.

I hate it when people say "I'm entitled to". There's a lot in this life many of us are entitled to but that's partly why this country is in such a mess. Vodafone is entitled to not pay that £6bn in tax but it is wrong, IMO, that they don't. All those bankers are entitled to their bonuses even after the tax payer has bailed them out and are suffering for doing so. I think that's morally wrong.

Just because you are entitled to do something doesn't mean you should.

You are so right, The FairyCaravan.

This has just been on Look NorthWest - pharmacist on therr asked that those who now pay over the counter continue to do do as the target is those on a low income. Phew - I feel better for hearing that message go out.

Despite being 'entitled' to use this, I'd still buy calpol, paracetamol and most other medicines. I think the only things I would use this for is thrush medication or other prescribed medications to save me a GP trip.

I saw a phrase earlier that was something like "Poverty is in want of much but avarice of everything" and it seems appropriate here.

Everything in life that aims to help those with very little is targeted by the greedy and over-entitled (in that category I include the patients who use this scheme when they can afford not to and the pharmacists who recommend it when not strictly appropriate to make a profit)