To think charging for 2 is unfair

[Redouble]

I'm on 20mg of a medication, paying £9.35 every 2 months for the prescription.

The dose has been changed to 30mg - it doesn't come in 30mg so it's been prescribed in 20mg & 10mg - two boxes, same medication.

So now I'm paying double, £18.70 every two months, this seems very unfair. AIBU?

Can't you buy one of those prescription certificate thingys?

Ask to be prescribed double the amount?

Get a pre-payment certificate. You pay just over £10 a month by DD and you can have as many prescriptions as you want. Makes far more economic sense.

I think that is wrong, is it one line on the prescription?

It costs over £100 a year for a certificate, when previously I've been paying £56 for a year's supply - so even with a pre paid certificate, it's doubled in cost :(

They does seem odd/ wrong.
aside from the fact it’s not your fault that the tabs don’t come in 30mg… I thought you pay per script, not per drug ???
have you/ can you speak to the go receptionist about it?

I'd still be paying almost double unfortunately.

The prepay certificates are the short term answer.

But yes you should have been prescribed 30mg as the dose with it being up to the pharmacy how they dealt with the availabilities. I'd ask the doctors to review.

If your Gp puts 30mg on your prescription you should only be charged once regardless of if it comes in 3 x10, 6x5 or 30x1. That is certainly what happens with my prescription

That's weird.
Why isn't it a single prescription?
Go back and ask for it to be a prescription of 30mg per day. How that is filled is up to them. 1 20 and 1 10 or 3 10.

There's no reason it has to be one prescription for the 20mg and one for the 10mg.

This is it! The pharmacist had said it just needs to be put on one script, but the GP keeps sending it in two!

Receptionist is very defensive, rude and unhelpful.

You’ve been charged for two prescriptions. Next time as for your doctor to put it on a single prescription, you’ll only get charged once even though you get two boxes of tablets.

had the same issue recently, asked them to put it on a single prescription and it was fine the next time I collected.

Has the pharmacy charged you twice? I work in pharmacy and you should still only be paying 1 charge despite 2 different strengths being needed to make up your dose. I would go back and query this with them.

They've said that as it's being sent to them I two scripts, they have to charge for two.

I spoke with the receptionist to ask for it to be on one script, but she said it can't be done!

Technically they can’t prescribe 30 mg because it isn’t available

So you have one set that is 20 and one set that is 10 and you take 2 tablets.

Of course it can be done. I get 1 prescription for 150mg - the dosages come in 25mg, 50mg, 100mg. I pay for 1 prescription get 2 boxes of tablets sometimes more if the dont have any 50 or 100 in stock.

I've asked GP surgery several times but they keep refusing, and the pharmacist is bewildered as she said they can issue a single script but they always send two!

The receptionist is wrong. It can and should be done as you say. Prescription should read XXXX tablets 30mg once daily or whatever, and charged as one. You pay for different medications, not the same one at different strengths, if the prescription is written correctly.

Complain to your GP practice

Ask your Pharmacist for a letter detailing what he/she has said. Contact the practice manager and ask for an appointment to discuss this.

I used to work in a GP practice until recently. My bet is that your 20mg are on your repeat list but the new 10 mg are on your 'acute' list. A lot of GP's put a new drug on acute instead of repeat initially incase it doesn't agree with you etc. It means when they (receptionists) request both (20 & 10mg), unfortunately it comes out on 2 different prescriptions. It's easily rectified obviously, by putting the 10mg on repeat too and then when requested, it will come out on one prescription. Only a GP/clinician can change an acute medication to repeat though, not a receptionist. Request the change on an econsult choosing the admin option (if your surgery offers them)

I have this conversation with multiple patients every day and it’s getting tiring! I’m not sure what some surgeries are playing at. I think some of them aren’t bothered because they’re not the ones at the counter taking the money from (understandably) angry patients.

You pay per item so if you were prescribed both strengths on one prescription, providing the form was the same, you’d only have to pay one charge.
Unfortunately, by prescribing different strengths on separate prescriptions, you will be charged accordingly, that’s out of the pharmacy’s control and completely down to the GP.

I know it’s a pain but keep on at your surgery, OP! I would say perhaps ask your pharmacist to give them a call but 1) knowing what pharmacy is like currently, it won’t be a priority and 2) in situations like this, the surgery will refuse to let us sort it and will only want to talk to the patient themselves.

Good luck!😊

Speak to the gp, not the receptionist. It's the doctor you need to make this change.

I recently had a prescription for two different types of antibiotic and they were on the same script, with only one charge for both. So it seems very wrong that your doctors’ surgery insists on writing two scripts for two different dosages of the same meds! Definitely keep complaining, this is nonsense.

And yes of course they can. The receptionist is talking shite.

I've got prescriptions that fall between strengths and they are made up of different strength tablets on the one prescription.