to be completely pissed off at horrendous prescription charges

[fizzbuzz]

Have had acute back pain over last few days, and have been prescribed a lot of painkillers.

Have also been presribed antacids to help with side effects of pain killers, anti-nausea drugs for same reason, AND lactulose for same reason.

This little lot has has cost about £38.00 (don't quote me). Does anyone else think these are outrageous? I am sure that a few years ago they weren't as high in relation to other stuff

they are expensive. did you check you couldnt get any of them, lactulose for starters, without a prescription?
perhaps for next time. and the generic (boots own) brand

That includes the cost of lactulose over the counter (Tesco) The rest were not available without prescription

Have you still got the receipts?If so you can go back to chemist and ask for a prescription charges refund form.Then apply for a 3 month card which costs £28 and covers all scripts.Get them to date it for dates you paid for your scripts,and when you hasve the card number you can get refunded the excess you have paid.If you are not working and in receipt of benefits or on low income you can get a free px card.HTH

The thing is, is that most drugs are frighteningly expensive. So you pay £7.10 per item whether the drug costs £3 or £300.

It's always worth asking the doc if it's better to have some stuff on a private prescription, that way you pay the cost of the drug plus the dispensing fee which may well work out cheaper than paying for an NHS prescription. But it really depends on what you need, some items are much more expensive than you will pay - for example some inhalers are up to £68!

No reepts, dp collected them, and he has lost them of course...

I don't have a card, because I don't really need them that much.

But dd was born in 2006, and am sure when I became pregnant they were about £5.75. Then after year of free prescriptions ran out, they seemed to be much more expensive

But I believe they are free in Scotland (or is it Wales?)

But what really annoys me, is there is no sliding scale for charges. So someone like me, pays the same charges as someone on £50K per year

Have they gone up? I paid £6.85 for something 3 weeks ago.

Your chemist is very out of date, they went up over 6 months ago

I get at least 5 prescriptions a month sometimes 7, I have now got the forms to get prepaid.

Pre-paid is totally the way to go, especially if you have something like ashtma, that way if you ge4t a chest infection and need steriods or antibiotics they are also covered

wiffey that is exactly why mine was so high last month! I also have 5 scripts for Lupus/Fibromyalgia meds