To think if the hospital wanted to see proof of payment exemption they should have asked at the time

[OntarioBagnet]

So went to OOH recently and came away with a box of medicine. They invited me to pay and I said I pay annually and offered to show them my emailed certificate on my phone. They said not to worry.

I’ve now had a letter from the hospital telling me I owe them £9.35. If I have exemption I can write to them with evidence of this. Which will obviously cost me a stamp and I’ll need to find/pay for printing because it’s only on my phone.

I’ve rung them up and asked if I can email a screenshot and apparently they don’t accept that. So I’m just planning on ignoring them now. 🤷🏻‍♀️

If you ignore it, it gets sent back to a central NHS hub who will just send you a fine which is 5x whatever is owed.

Might as well get it over with, but also put a complaint in about the system.

Is it possible that the person dispensing the medicine is not the person in control of records?

You should just be able to give them your pre-payment number. This happened to me once, so I wrote a letter with the number in it. I've not been sent a certificate since they did away with the cards.

Thanks, I’ll try ringing them again with that number

I had similar except that, when I phoned them, they said “ok, not to worry”. YANBU to be annoyed but I would think it’s more annoying that they won’t accept an email than that they didn’t ask at the time (what if you hadn’t had it on you at the time?). For the sake of a stamp, it’s not a big deal.

I wouldn't ignore it, surely your local library has a print facility?

That and the cost of a stamp can't add up to much,

You don't need to send them the certificate - just the reference number

Just tell them you'll either email it or you'll show them next time you're there so they can print it. Realistically, if I needed to do that now and never had a printer at home it would be an hour out of my day to get to the library, get it printed and then get a stamp and post it. Not fair of them really, but I wouldn't ignore it in case you end up with a fine.

This used to happen to DD sometimes as the person writing the script often added a letter to her surname, a quick letter used to resolve the matter

Well I can’t find the email now so looks like I’ll have to pay. Which is annoying when I’ve already paid over £100 for the year. You’d think there would be some sort of electronic system. I swear there must be at the chemists as they never ask me to pay/ask if I’ve pre paid so I just assumed it flags up that I’ve paid. 🤷‍♀️

I dont think it comes as an email, I think its a letter to say it will be renewed.

It's not flagged, it's virtually a trust system.yiu are signing to say you have an exemption or a pre pay arrangement. If you don't have the exemption etc but you have said that you do they can fine you.

Its not an email its a a letter

The hospital pharmacy is nothing to do with your local chemist.

Search for [email protected] that's the address mine came from.

They don’t send letters anymore, I can find the email for my daughter. Not mine though.

No I’m aware of that. But seeing as I thought (possibly wrongly) that it flags up at my local chemist I thought maybe it flagged up at all chemists. I wonder why the local chemists never asks for payment.

Check your bank and make sure it hasn't lapsed.

Oh there's an online checker now services.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/check-my-nhs-exemption/start

Fabulous, thank you. I’d googled and hadn’t found this. It is in date, I’ll have to print off and post them a screenshot as the checker doesn’t give you the certificate number.

Just write them a handwritten letter confirming that you have an pre-payment certificate and that the number is X? No need to print anything, and a stamp costs 68p. Yes it's annoying that they wouldn't look at it at the time, but you could get it sorted very quickly.

Think it must be new, I've not seen it before. It did say on it you can use it as proof if you don't have the certificate so I guess it's better than nothing. I miss the card!

I don’t know why they don’t just use the online checker themselves rather than waste stamps writing to people….or look at the time when the person offers to show them the certificate 🤷‍♀️

No need for calling OP a twat. She's asking for opinions not for abuse.