To think NHS Prescriptions are extortionate

[Leobynature]

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

There have been a few times when ai haven't picked up a prescription because I couldn't afford the £9, however I'd rather it be £9 than £100s

Yabu and completely clueless about how much drugs cost. Shocking as it may seem, not every drug costs the same as cheap paracetamol to produce.

If anything the cost needs to go up, but with more help for those just above the cut off for free treatment.

Cheaper steroid inhalers cost £20. YABU.

An inhaler in America's costs $190.

You can get a decent stock of own brand calpol paracetamol and ibuprofen for under a tenner in Asda.

@Radi0t1me5 have you looked into the pre payment certificate? It's usually cheaper if you need multiple prescriptions. apps.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ppc-online/patient.do

Fungo is a human medicine. If prescribed on a nhs prescription I would pay £9 for it.
At a lot lower does than a human would take and a lot less tablets than the nhs would prescribe I have to pay over 3 times as much as I have to pay the full cost of the drug. That is my point.

Your GP should have told you that paracetamol and ibuprofen costs pence in a supermarket... my GP has told me that in the past.
As to the inhaler... £9 seems ok, but could be cheaper.

However, you need to feel a bit lucky that you didn’t get charged even more like in many other countries.

You can get stronger painkillers without prescription. When I had shingles the GP advised buying something with codeine - co-codamol I think. You're not supposed to take it for more than 3 days because it's addictive, so I was surprised to be able to get it without a prescription.

Sorry that sounds like fungo is the medicine. I should have said gabapentin is a human medicine

As to the inhaler... £9 seems ok, but could be cheaper.

They're £50 without a prescription

@Dontsweatthelittlestuff oh, my apologies. I had no clue what it had to do with anything. My bad

I've lived in a country with no nhs.

Pay to see the nurse to have your smear test.
Pay for the lab to test your results.
Pay to see the nurse to collect your results.

Pay once a year to see doctor for epipen appointment for dd.
Pay for epipens

Pay for opticians appointment for other dd.
Pay for glasses (months wages)
Send her to school with a months wages on her face.

I doubt any of the medication I brought was worth £9 tbh

I wish you could see how hard I’m rolling my eyes at this 🙄. Can only assume you think this based on your extensive experience as a chemist, right? Thought not.

You probably could have got pain meds over the counter but no over the counter stuff is as strong as prescription and it’s not about ‘what it’s worth to you’ it’s about ‘what it costs the NHS’ which is A LOT bloody more than £9 I can assure you.

In the US people die because they can’t afford health care and you’re whinging about your £9 prescription - you sound uneducated (on healthcare system costs) and frankly quite ungrateful

Are you serious?
I take a lot of meds ( 6 different things daily and 1 twice monthly ) for a couple of very serious health conditions.
One costs over 4K a month.
I pay £10 something a month by direct debit for all my meds.
My sister in America ( we are dual nationals since birth) pays $300 a month for one of the same drugs.
I don't think our prescription fees are too much at all.
You need to budget for these things, always have basic pain relief for yourself and DC.
Plus a good first aid kit.
The nhs should absolutely not be providing meds that are available for sale over the counter.

Bloody hell. Do your research, op. Paracetamol is pence - not something that should be prescribed!

We are bloody lucky to have the nhs. Please don’t abuse it.

YABVU. The actual cost of medication is astronomical, so getting prescriptions for £9 really is a bargain.

You should be happy to help the NHS. You can’t have everything for free; you’re already essentially getting free doctors appointments.

A quick google tells me that a ventolin inhaler is £12 several antibiotics ranging from £12 -£20 for one month supply...

My own HRT patches world cost me over £30 a month, so I'm grateful for the NHS.

When I worked for a pharmacy it used to make me mad when people would just get every repeat whether they needed it or not and this was in the days of bottles of 100 paracetamol. Their argument was often "well I paid my taxes I'm entitled.. " what people don't realise is that there isn't an infinite supply and it isnt "free" someone is paying. People wouldo often come in with a sackful of unused drugs that had been hoarded by an elderly relative that had now died. It had to go straight in the bin. All that waste....

Always stock up on paracetamol and ibuprofen from the supermarket, some places it’s like 15p for a pack.

Funko not a lot of people realise when you take your animal to the vet there is a good chance that any medicine they need will be human medicine. One of the reasons I need to sell a kidney every time one of my cats is sick😩

Im in disbelief at this post

Its little wonder our NHS is being abused.

I paid £77 for a single dose of a drug at the vets last night.

My dog’s drugs for chronic pain cost me around £60 per month.

I buy my inhalers privately as it means I can have one in the car and one at work and so on. They’re around £25 each. If I were on less old-fashioned drugs they would be an awful lot more.

£9 is cheap as chips compared with the real cost of the drugs.

Of course you got a bargain, it would have cost much more than 9 quid to buy. Get a prepayment certificate. I've had a chronic condition all of my life, and have other chronic conditions as I get older. I pay £10 a month for all my meds.

Just for information, if you need large quantities of paracetamol or Ibruprofen you can buy up-to 96 in one go, as long as you go to a pharmacy and not a regular shop.

For those people saying you can't buy large quantities of paracetamol etc, pharmacists can sell much larger quantities then shops.

Nope they aren't extortionate at all. I take tables for anxiety and found out that they cost £25 EACH!!

I think you'd be very surprised and thank god you only paid 30 odd quid for what you got!

Scotland here - so all prescriptions are free - but many people realise the extra money we pay in taxes for this and a great many other things that England doesn't have, things which makes our country a fairer country for all to live in isn't bottomless and things like capol, and other basic meds are better picked up in the supermarket to leave way for when you need the proper meds. Well, I like to think that they do anyway.