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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think NHS Prescriptions are extortionate

286 replies

Leobynature · 13/12/2019 22:07

I am not sure what response I am looking for. Myself and 1 year old have been sick all week with flu. I have developed a chest infection and DD has had breathing problems. After a much appreciated GP visit I was pleased I was given a prescription for antibiotics, pain medication and an inhaler. I was advised to buy ibuprofen and paracetamol for DD as the ‘NHS do not give prescription for calpol’. I was absolutely astonished that this came to over £35! This is a lot from our budget. I don’t think I could afford to be sick again. I don’t know how some families with repeat prescriptions manage it. So annoyed as the pain medication is not even that strong and I could have just ‘overdosed’ on 49p over the counter medication. £9 per med is extortionate

OP posts:
daisypond · 14/12/2019 10:03

Thanks for that link @ElfAndSafeKey

ElfAndSafeKey · 14/12/2019 10:04

I think it's clearly wrong that the Scots and welsh have free prescriptions but not the English
They voted in governments that pledged free prescriptions. England didn't. Simple really.

PigletJohn · 14/12/2019 10:12

Radiotimes

Well I'm really glad that you know better now.

LookStupidInEverything · 14/12/2019 10:20

DH was working full time, looking after me and doing everything round the house. He could not cope,

Righttttt. I read stupid stuff on this site daily but really?

MontStMichel · 14/12/2019 10:20

They voted in governments that pledged free prescriptions. England didn't. Simple really.

As the Conservatives only got 43% of the vote, it means the majority 57% did not get the government they believe in!

SilverDragonfly1 · 14/12/2019 10:22

Perhaps the problem here is the price manufacturers charge for medication that costs pence to make? It's they who are ripping people off, not the pharmacies or the NHS.

Dontsweatthelittlestuff · 14/12/2019 10:27

it Is not the making them that cost the money. It is the research and development that goes before.

easyandy101 · 14/12/2019 10:27

Can't believe people giving the OP grief for basically being poor

People saying price rises are in line with inflation, that's not strictly true. When it went to price per line rather than price per ticket that wasn't an inflationary rise

If you can't afford 35 quid then you can't afford to be sick, which is a pretty miserable position to be in and it's hard to feel grateful for that.

Yeah it could be much worse, we could live in America or we could live in a country with an underdeveloped health service, but we don't we live in the UK with our much vaunted "free" world class healthcare coupled with the fact that people living over an administrative border do get it for free

Huggybear16 · 14/12/2019 10:32

I think it's clearly wrong that the Scots and welsh have free prescriptions but not the English

I think it's clearly wrong that Scotland has to be led by the Tories just because England voted that way.

nokidshere · 14/12/2019 10:35

All of the people I know who get paracetamol on prescription it’s because they can’t trail around several places to get enough for what they need each week

They don't need to, they just need to go to a pharmacy instead of a shop.

WelcomeToShootingStars · 14/12/2019 10:35

A prepay certificate is £10 a month. Breathtakingly few people could not afford to pay £10 a month. What immense value for your health.

My husband takes several different meds for a chronic condition he has. One tablet costs £493 a day, and he has several antibiotics and nebulised treatments on top of that. He pays £100 a year.

I'm lousy at getting myself to the doctors and I often buy my meds. I pay £25 for antibiotics.

The prescription cost is very low for most things.

ScreamingValalalalahLalalalah · 14/12/2019 10:37

I think it's clearly wrong that Scotland has to be led by the Tories just because England voted that way.

I'm not happy about a Tory government either, so I sympathise, but Scotland could have chosen independence in 2014 and didn't, so they brought that one on themselves.

PhilSwagielka · 14/12/2019 10:40

Not compared to other countries tbf. If it's stuff like paracetamol or eye drops, you can get them OTC - I was prescribed eye drops but the pharmacist said outright that it would be cheaper to buy them OTC. I saved £7 or so. Ibuprofen and paracetamol are super cheap.

YappityYapYap · 14/12/2019 10:41

Other countries aren't paying 12% of their wages over £719 a month for healthcare though are they? They are paying taxes only then paying a premium for their health insurance via their employer. They don't have a mandatory deduction for NI coming out of their wage. Between me and DH, we are paying almost £700 a month in NI. We could both get extensive premium medical insurance for that and for our DS, save a couple of hundred a month for any excesses and pay for our prescriptions if needed then even whack some money into a private pension fund leaving us non reliant on a state pension.

It doesn't matter what other countries do, they don't pay NI so it's a mute point. The average two parent working family are paying anything from a few hundred a month to £2,000+ in NI each month. We have no choice, we have to pay NI as an employee. There's no dodging it and you can't opt out. We're effectively paying a community private medical insurance fee to not only cover ourselves but to cover anyone that doesn't pay NI or not enough. I agree with that method, I think it's fair but to say someone paying maybe £250 a month in private medical insurance and has to pay for prescriptions compares to the average UK person paying much more than that in NI, it doesn't compare.

I live in Scotland so prescriptions are free here and I think they should be. There's lots of ways the NHS could save money and be more scrupulous with piss takers but they won't take that action so that's not our issue. People can have 10 births on the NHS for no extra, someone can be a stupid drunk and be treated constantly for their drunkness, people can take part in sports and extreme sports and keep getting their injuries treated, drug addicts getting put on methadone programmes constantly and obese people eating them selves to death basically taking up lots of resources. They are the problem, not the OP who struggled to find £35 for treatment she needed due to a chest infection she had no control over

Teachermaths · 14/12/2019 10:48

We had no idea there would be screw up warranting a wound.

Nor did I. But once I had the wound it was pretty clear one or even 2 prescriptions wouldn't be enough. So I got a prepaid certificate. Just because you didn't know about the system doesn't mean its crap.

mullyluo · 14/12/2019 11:04

I've move to Ireland and wish we had standard prescription charges like the nhs. We have to pay the actual cost of medicine (even for children) plus 45 euros to see the GP. I've just had to spend over €5000 on an operation I needed. Worked in a NHs hospital pharmacy and people were alway complaing about the Nhs levy when some of the medication cost hundreds of pounds a bottle and they were going to pay about £8 for a six month supply. Plus the fact I would say at least 75% of people coming in had a exemption card/were too young/too old/pregnant/said they couldn't pay but we still had to give them the medication.

ClientListQueen · 14/12/2019 11:09

You can also choose when to apply for the pre payment
Some months I don't need prescriptions because of the way my meds work out. But if I get unwell say and go to the doctor who prescribes something and I think "oh that's three prescriptions, and I need my regular ones" I go online and buy the card there and then for 3 months and date it for the same day
Then in the chemist I just show the confirmation email and you're away and I have three months then of prescriptions covered

Emeraldshamrock · 14/12/2019 11:09

It is a bargain in compared with other countries similar to the UK.
In Ireland my niece was charged 400 euro age 17 for a contraception coil, her friend opted for the bar in her arm as she couldn't afford the coil costing her 275.
It would cost a lot more if they both ended up single DM's.

JKScot4 · 14/12/2019 11:10

@MontStMichel
“DH was working full time, looking after me and doing everything round the house. He could not cope, and having to buy me paracetamol every two days was a pain in the neck! “
Your DH is useless, what you describe is what mums do every day! The poor wee lamb, hope he gets plenty naps 🙄🙄

RB68 · 14/12/2019 11:12

you can get a prepay for as little as a month and you can get it immeditaely and pay at the chemist rather than paying for several prescriptions - they should have told you this really

it then lasts for a month. When I had to pay I used to get a 3 month one and make sure I got a prescription at the end of the three months to last 2 months then wld get another 3 month one when I needed the next prescription. I have 5 meds some mthly and some 2 mths. I now qualify for free but wish I didn't....

Huggybear16 · 14/12/2019 11:14

I'm not happy about a Tory government either, so I sympathise, but Scotland could have chosen independence in 2014 and didn't, so they brought that one on themselves

Yes, perhaps. But my point was to show the PP that it works both ways. Yes, we get prescriptions for free in Scotland and PP doesn't in England, but there are things we don't get in Scotland that those in England do.

Emeraldshamrock · 14/12/2019 11:23

£39 is a lot if money if you haven't got it, DS flu week here means my Christmas money has taking a big hit. I get it.
Look out for bargains on paracetamol in future, ask your pharmacist to check what is cheaper to buy over the counter.

ViveLEntenteCordiale · 14/12/2019 11:30

Sorry but that's nothing. We are abroad (Europe) and pay a huge amount annually for health insurance. It's a massive chunk of our income, We pay the actual cost of drugs and reclaim them, up a a certain amount per year, so we always end up paying for some ourselves. My DH recently paid about £60 each for 2 inhalers (had to get a second one as the first wasn't strong enough). I am on regular meds which total more than £200 a month. And there is no cheap paracetamol here - it's €2 for 16! Yes it was our choice to move abroad but a prescription charge is tiny compared to what people pay in other countries.

PigletJohn · 14/12/2019 11:44

@Emeraldshamrock

"£39 is a lot if money if you haven't got it,"

But as we have already established, there is no need for anyone to pay that much in a single month on NHS prescriptions.

PigletJohn · 14/12/2019 11:52

@YappityYapYap

I am glad to see that your family pulls in over £80,000 a year. It must be a great hardship to you that higher earners contribute more than low earners. Unfortunately for high earners, taxes often work like that. Try to cope with your resentment. I've found that earning plenty of money, and paying tax on it, is less of a hardship than the opposite.