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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:
ReginaPhalangeee · 14/12/2019 05:47

YABU.

WobblyAllOver · 14/12/2019 05:50

£9 is a bargain. I think if people actually knew the true cost of health items then they would think the actual cost we pay is minimal.

If you need a lot of medication then you can get pre paid certificate which helps mitigate costs for those on long term medication.

I fear free prescriptions for all would just mean people demanding everything on prescription and a lot of waste or stock piling.

ReginaPhalangeee · 14/12/2019 05:50

www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/prescription-prepayment-certificates-ppcs

Just leaving this here too. A prepayment certificate. You can pay £29.10 for 3 months or pay £10.40 per month for 10 months to cover for a year. This then covers you for any prescription you may need.

Emeraldshamrock · 14/12/2019 05:53

Yanbu. Illness is expensive.
DS has a flu all week so far up with a GP house call included we are at €200.

TamingToddler · 14/12/2019 06:38

@Radi0t1me5 The dressings for your husband, the whole box might be cheaper than prescription price if you ask a dispenser to find the price for you. Only by a couple of ££ but it all adds up.

SpuriouserAndSpuriouser · 14/12/2019 06:49

I wouldn't mind so much but I feel doctors just prescribe randomly sometimes in the hope that they find something that works - at my expense.

Don’t be ridiculous, of course it’s not random. Medical practice is based on evidence, doctors prescribe drugs which are proven to work on the condition that they suspect you have. That suspicion also isn’t random, it’s based on what they have learnt during years of studying and training. Unfortunately medicine isn’t an exact science, and sometimes a patient will respond differently than expected to a medication, or it may turn out that the original diagnosis is incorrect, but that doesn’t mean that doctors are just guessing. It’s actually incredibly insulting to suggest that.

user1480880826 · 14/12/2019 06:49

Enjoy it while you can. The NHS won’t be around for much longer if the tories get their way. Then you will really have something to complain about.

Weekday28 · 14/12/2019 07:00

I work in a pharmacy and I do understand the sentiment of what you are trying to say. £9 is a lot of money for some. However when I order some medications it is still shocking to me how expensive things are, one person has an injection prescribed which is £229 every month!

Also can I just say if you also get prescribed something and you have to wait for it to come in a delivery ot is probably due to it being not very common and expensive. The amount of people who expect us to carry every single medicine is mad.

HigherFurtherFasterBaby · 14/12/2019 07:01

I have a pre pay certificate.

My medications cost FAR more than the £10 a month I pay. And they keep me alive. I’m also a student so money is right here. If I had to pay full price it would likely be the same amount as my rent if not more.

Stop whining.

ColaFreezePop · 14/12/2019 07:13

OP if you are given a prescription especially more than one prescription always ask the pharmacist if anything can be brought of the prescription cheaper.

I'm actually on a drug that can be brought over the counter for £6-7, but for the price of a prescription I can get 3 times the amount. Every time I get a prescription the pharmacist checks what's cheaper.

PhilCornwall1 · 14/12/2019 07:14

Considering a medication I'm about to start is going to cost the NHS close to 5 grand a year for just me to have it, so really £9 isn't bad at all.

Newbie1981 · 14/12/2019 07:18

They need to be to fund it. I will happily pay as the money is going back into the system

AJPTaylor · 14/12/2019 07:24

It is true that you can get a pre pay cert for a tenner a month.
That does not mean it is not hard for some one to find 35 quid out of their budget at no notice when poorly. Especially if they have qualified for free prescriptions before. And yes, of course overall it's a bargain, being able to pick up whatever drugs you need at a fixed price but some of these are less than the charge, many are more.

AlwaysCheddar · 14/12/2019 07:24

Maybe all countries will start paying prescription charges in UK.. that would be fair.

SimonJT · 14/12/2019 07:32

One of my daily medications is prescribed by a private GP so I have to pay for the medication rather than rely on an NHS prescription. Each tablet is £1.95, I have to take two a day. Thats around £58 per month. Due to having diabetes if the NHS would treat me that prescription would cost me £0.

DowntownAbby · 14/12/2019 07:32

@lyralalala

If you have a genuine need to buy large volumes of paracetamol a pharmacist can sell you up to 100 at a time.

I bought boxes of 96 from a Tesco pharmacy when DH had glandular fever and was using lots of it to control the fever.

stuckinthemiddlewithtwats · 14/12/2019 07:42

@SpuriouserAndSpuriouser - did you actually read what I wrote? There was NO medical evidence I have asthma yet they prescribed me 5 different asthma inhalers and I DON'T HAVE ASTHMA. So yes it was at bloody random. I had a chest infection that they refused to listen to me about, because my dad once had childhood asthma. To my doctor that meant I MUST have asthma - it was absolute bollocks. The hospital confirmed I don't have it.

And guess what? I caught another one this year - and I have asthma again. They prescribed the same inhalers which I refused. Some doctors are just shit at what they do.

Sceptre86 · 14/12/2019 07:48

Do you live in an area with the minor ailment scheme? If you don't know ask next time you are in the pharmacy. You can get basic meds for free like paracetamol, saline drops for your child as they are under 16. Yes they are cheap to buy but if you need that bit of extra help it is there.

The cost of prescription items is a lot less than other countries and we are very lucky but if the OP finds the cost prohibitive that isn't her fault. £30 is a lot when you don't have it going spare. I really don't understand why people on here have a hard time understanding that some people literally do not have any extra money.

stuckinthemiddlewithtwats · 14/12/2019 07:51

@SpuriouserAndSpuriouser I've also been asked by my doctor if I've googled what I think I might have. When I said no, I was told to go and do that and then book back in with the print outs as he couldn't be bothered to google it himself.
Yeah that medical opinion was based on years and years of training wasn't it Hmm.

He also refuses to see me now as I'm pregnant and pregnancy isn't an illness (apparently I can't get ill while I'm pregnant). Refused the higher dose of folic acid I've been advised by the hospital because he's never heard of it, and worst of all, refused me a very important blood test because he didn't want to tick the 'other' box and type in the name of the test I required. I now have to wait to see if my baby is born deformed as it's too late to get the test now.

And I'm the one that being insulting to doctors and their amazing work, according to you.
This wonderful work was by a different doctor to the 'everyone has asthma' doctor I mentioned in my other post. So it's not just one shit doctor. And before anyone suggests they may be young and new, they're not.

BarbaraofSeville · 14/12/2019 07:52

I am amazed that there are people seemingly unaware of that and grumbling that they pay a lot for multiple prescriptions

^^ This. There is a poster about the PPC in every pharmacy in the country. Do people not pay attention to anything?

Even in England, 90% of prescriptions are free and the most that anyone has to pay is around £10 per month and yet loads of people moan about the cost, a lot. Astonishing.

lifeisgoodagain · 14/12/2019 07:54

How did that come to £35? Prescription is £10.20, calpol is £3, a packet of adult ibroprofen is 40p. Infant ibroprofen is £4.

Dogsaresomucheasier · 14/12/2019 07:57

That’s heavily subsidised compared to the real cost of the drugs, this is why some of us were so desperate to keep Boris out of number 10. Think yourself lucky it’s a one-off. I don’t know how you voted, but it’s now clear the majority of the British public have no interest in taking care of the sick, and are really quite deluded that it couldn’t happen to them.

lifeisgoodagain · 14/12/2019 08:00

Ps my dd is on 2 mental health prescriptions, you really don't want to see what she is like without them yet she has to pay even though she's a student (she doesn't qualify under low income because she lives at home despite the fact she pays me rent!) I buy her a prepayment certificate, they take the money monthly

FlyingFlamingo · 14/12/2019 08:01

To the poster asking how a prescription for paracetamol costs £35...

The actual paracetamol isn’t £35. That £35 is the cost of the GP’s time to see you and write the prescription as well as covering the payment made to the pharmacy to dispense the drugs. The actual drugs cost pennies.

daisypond · 14/12/2019 08:01

How did that come to £35? Prescription is £10.20, - prescription would be £27. Three items- antibiotics, painkillers, inhaler- at £9 each. Plus the other stuff.