I shouldn't be getting free prescriptions

[ssd]

because I live in Scotland

I work, so does dh

we have a combined income of £25k

we don't need a regular prescription every week

where I pick up my prescriptions, people I know who are lawyers, accountants, business owners all pick them up free, its across the board and not means tested

its all wrong, when people in England pay over £8 for theirs

it should be means tested, that and the winter fuel allowance , probably loads more I cant think of just now

If you pay for prescriptions and need something thats not prescription only, always ask if it's cheaper off prescription. some creams and tablets fall into this category.

My partner gets lots of different drugs. Lots of times when they reorder particular medications, the GP and pharmacy simply process it for all the drugs on repeat prescription. This is in spite of lots of complaining about this.

I have an under active thyroid so need to take thyroxine forever. Because of this all my prescriptions are free. I don't agree with this. It's nice but I don't think I ought to be exempt when the nhs is struggling as it is.

heron98 why don't you just pay for all other prescriptions then? You don't have to declare you can get them for free.

I have a prepayment card, I take medication for neuralgia, eczema and asthma. I've no problem paying the prescription for the other drugs because it can change but my asthma drugs I would count as life prolonging so I shouldn't have to pay for that.

Some people with an underactive thyroid have lots of complications and have to take lots of other drugs. That is why it is free. Be glad that yours is uncomplicated.

Not RTFT but I agree with the OP

I am also living in Scotland, and get free prescriptions. I am on 7 repeat prescriptions each month. Although I would get them for 'free' anyway due to being exempt by England's rules, I disagree that we as a country have a blanket 'free' system. I have friends in England who have to choose between medications each month such as asthma inhalers and anti-psychotics.

I think it would be much more fair and efficient to reduce prescriptions costs across the whole of the UK, not give some people for free (non-means tested) whilst others keep feeling the increase of costs.

Then that is fair enough. But paracetamol, plasters and gluten free bread are not really likely to be complications. Dh has numerous health problems including an underactive thyroid, but I think he could manage to pay 15p for a packet of paracetamol and buy his own plasters, and if he needed gluten free bread then he could buy it in any supermarket.

Paracetamol and plasters make no sense on prescription. Maybe fine to be able to prescribe them in exceptional circumstances. For example someone who has had their benefits sanctioned so totally totally skint, but who takes painkillers every day for a chronic condition. But otherwise makes no sense.

Yes to the hospital pharmacy waste.

I pay for prescriptions but hospital pharamcy medication is given free. I have had 15 plus operations over the last 10 years on my airway. Almost every time they tack a pack of paracetamol on the discharge plus the steroids etc. I don't need a pack of paracetamol but refusing was impossible.. the Dr has prescribed it.

Only prescribing what is essential and a procedure where patient can decline easily would save a fortune.

Alice as the NHS is devolved the budgets are separate so what you suggest isn't possible.

I understand that Laguna I just think it's incredibly unfair

FTR, I do get paracetamol on prescription. I take 8 a day, so receive 224 caplets every 4 weeks. I would likely be cheaper to buy these myself, but my GP prefers to have them officially on my record, as I take other medication alongside.

But cleaty, my condition isn't. Yet I still pay for meds.
Not too bad at present, I take 4 X 10mg Zyrtec a day so buy online as cheaper. Citalopram, naproxen, dihydrocodeine and diazepam
My condition means I'm immune suppressed and I have virtually no neutrophil (white cell count) so I also inject once a week to stimulate bone marrow (common drug used when people have chemo)
So I can't fight infection which also means constant antibiotics, then thrush meds.. Etc etc

Can I just say in my 20 years working in pharmacy I have never ever dispensed a prescription for plasters! In fact I'm pretty sure they would be blacklisted, i.e. Not allowed on the nhs

Out of interest, does anyone know how doctors decide what to put on which scripts? Ie. sometimes you'll get a prescription with several items on, sometimes they'll put everything on separate scripts - why is this?

Controlled drugs are always on a script on their own.
Other times it depends how the surgery request the items on their system, if the item is not on your repeat slip it will often go on a script on its own as well.

So when the doctor is writing the original script, it's up to them how many items per script, excepting controlled drugs?

I have friends in England who have to choose between medications each month such as asthma inhalers and anti-psychotics. You say that like its a good thing? Surely free prescriptions is the answer to this? I love the fact that in Scotland, you dont have to choose between medicine and food, or which medicine you can 'afford' (healthwise) to skip on this week/month. Thats surely what any first world country should be aiming for. Otherwise it does eventually boil down to, you get what medicine you can afford (financially), essentially a medical division between rich and poor. And again, its NOT free, just free at point of use.

Are you suggesting all prescriptions are means tested except those fir children?

Asthma inhalers would be even more expensive if you paid at cost value, £30+ per month some of them.

Penicillin suspension works out at £30 for a 10 day course, so if your child is 10-12 maybe it's time they gave the tablets a try. Fair enough with a sore throat they might hit be able to.

Others are cheap as chips (warfarin, thyroxine).

I don't know how it would work for the best.

I've spent 15 minutes on the phone today with just two patients to check whether they still needed some meds on the prescriptions I had to sign in front of me. I don't have 15 minutes a day to spend everyday, let alone the hours on end it would take to do a proper job. It can get quite depressing.

Alice - there is an option to have the medication recorded but not issued.

Twelly, i think that is what the OP is suggesting. Except that in practice 80% of people are eligible for means tested free prescriptions. And it administration cost of mean testing everyone cost more than what was recouped from the 20% who had to pay. Of course I think included in the 80% were pensioners, who received free prescriptions because of their age (and I suspect utilise free prescriptions more due to ailments brought about by age). No government in their right mind is going to challenge that anomaly.

Lady, i read somewhere that free prescriptions (specifically those on the minor ailments list) should save up to a £1bn a year in freed up GP time.

I take 22 tablets per day across 6 different drugs. I also have more controlled drugs to take 'if I need to'. This is for spinal and nerve pain/damage. I wouldn't be exempt from paying for these as I am working, not a pensioner, etc. One of my drugs alone has a cost of around £70 per month. In total (looking at my BNF) my drugs cost around £130 pcm.
Thankfully I live in Scotland, so my prescriptions are free. I know of other people in my support group (online, so folks from other parts of the U.K.) who can't afford similar levels of prescriptions.
I'll flag the pre-payment certificate to them. I'd go for that any day.

My bigger concern is that we are a wealthy wealthy country (whole of UK) and yet we have been brainwashed into endlessly dissecting how to scrimp and save on things like medicines and health care while providing tax breaks to the wealthy.